Let the Symphony last for Eternity
by LadyLunarPhoenix
Summary: So you're the Spiritual domain of The Dark Lord. Then one day you get invaded by a bunch of idiots that won't stop trying to force you into redecorating... What to do... In the case of the Castle of Dracula? You use your powers and kidnap some help.
1. Play it again Sam, for Eternity

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

Beta: No beta... which is why I had to redo this... stupid deleting... at least now it may appear to make more sense.

* * *

**Jonathan Morris**

This wasn't right, he was pretty sure that this wasn't how a revisit to such a dangerous location was supposed to be. True the legends spoke of the Castle's ability to change it's form with each incarnation, even being summoned back within a few years apart, had a tendency to alter the castle in small ways. But never had he read of the monsters of the castle being so... so... Servants such as maids and butlers were clearly doing their 'jobs' the maids were cleaning, the butlers were attempting to be helpful. Animals were about as dangerous as they would be outside, most not looking to start a fight with the living human that walked in on them.

So Jonathan felt thoroughly disconcerted in traveling through Dracula's Castle, more so then ever before. The overpowering sense of being the focus of a stronger predator was no longer there, the power of Dracula, that was supposed to radiate, was more subdued. The whole Castle felt almost... just almost... neutral. Having woken up in the Castle's entryway with no clue how he got there, Jonathan had wandered the Castle's entry hall in total bafflement. Going outside had proven useless, the drawbridge was already raised, yet upon inspection he noticed that the castle's exterior was more neater.

So here he was, alone, traveling the hallway towards another set of doors with the Alucarde Spear hoisted over one shoulder. Wary battle harden senses had given way to confusion as the doors he had been heading towards suddenly opened. Jonathan wished Charlotte was around, maybe there was some point in time when this happened before. The girl was such a learning nut she was 'bound' to know about what was going on.

"You 'are' human, correct?" the door had opened revealing a single young man, albeit older then Jonathan himself. The stranger was of a lithe in build, much akin to a panther really, he moved with power and authority. A white coat that reached the man's ankles with a vivid red trim, while most of his clothes were black with silver trim, including his boots. There was a gauntlet on his left hand that reached his elbow and a chest plate as well. Charlotte would have also noted that the stranger looked more like he could have been Jonathan's older, more neater in appearance, brother.

"Yeah, the name's Jonathan, Jonathan Morris." he answered back noticing that this person carried a whip at his side. Not only 'a' whip, but the feeling it generated was of a fully awakened Vampire Killer. The stranger stopped walking about a foot away from him, before nodding and extended his hand out for a handshake.

"Leon, Leon Belmont." The stranger said with a confident tone, yet there were traces of warmth in his voice.

Belmont? This person was a Belmont and had Vampire Killer? The name didn't ring a bell to Jonathan, though he had heard about every Belmont who had hunted and defeated Dracula. Could this then be 'the' Belmont? The one that was destined to face Dracula in the future? Wait, future?

"Might you be able to help me? I woke up in a gallery here and no clue as to what is going on." Leon asked as Jonathan took his hand in a hearty shake.

Well, the Castle 'was' acting abnormally to begin with, maybe Leon was just as confused and decided that this 'couldn't' have been the true Castle. Besides waking up fully 'inside' the Castle itself? Very unlikely. This couldn't have been the true Castle, maybe a fabrication of the truth? It felt rather odd to Jonathan to be in the presence of such a revered Belmont, even if he hadn't been born yet. But there was still the issue of the time skip. If not for the fact that Leon carried Vampire Killer, Jonathan would have just assumed this was the current Belmont.

Jonathan was about to ask when a slight touch on his arm made him turn around. A zombie dressed like a maid, and in relative good condition, for a corpse, was standing there with an expected/vacant look in her eyes.

"Forgive me sirs, but could you kindly move? We need to clean the rug which you are standing upon."

"There's a Zombie talking to me..." Jonathan noted aloud stunned, while Leon merely stepped to the side.

"Yes, but she was polite about it, would be rude not to honor her request." Leon pointed out easily enough.

Jonathan mentally twitched as he did as told, stepping off the rug while wondering about the person he was with. But even as he thought, the maids came by and efficiently began rolling up the rug from one end of the room to the other. But when Leon walked off towards the maids he began to really worry about this particular Belmont.

"Excuse me miss? Perhaps you could help us, we've seem to be in a bit of a spot at the moment." Leon called out hoping to get some attention apparently.

Jonathan could only stare in open mouthed amazement as several of the Maids took notice, and one was elected spokesperson. The maid from before walked over dusting herself off and, for all intents and purposes, emulated a living person.

"Could you tell us where we are? We seem to have been brought here at a bad time, with such cleaning in the works." Leon asked in a polite, civilized tone.

"The Lady of the Castle has declared that the Castle shall always be open to your presence Sir Belmont. As for the Castle it belongs to our Lord and Master." The Maid replied her tone remaining sorta vacant though she did talk like the information was coming from her and not a puppet master.

Leon turned glance at Jonathan for help on the matter, but Jonathan was just as confused. A lady of the castle ensuring entry to a Belmont? Where was Charlotte when Jonathan needed her? Suddenly a thought hit Jonathan.

"Have you seen another un-regular vampire around here?" he asked walking up to the Maid. He watched as she frowned her focus turning towards him. For a moment he grew tense, his grip on the spear tightening.

"I have not. However; there is one wandering the Castle, posting up paintings that we do not approve of." Well that was surprisingly informative for Jonathan as he stood there, after all if Brauer 'was' in the Castle doing something...

But the vampire was dead, Death killed him after all, so how could... or maybe it was just another painting obsessed Vampire?

**Leon Belmont**

A soft violin played with an accompaniment of a flute from somewhere in the room. Leon didn't know since he would have to open his eyes. But for a moment he merely laid there listening to a song he didn't recognize while trying to get his bearings. It was a hard stone floor, with soft music being played through the air and nothing else. No sound of a living person anywhere in the room, it was disconcerting enough that Leon finally opened his eyes to have a look around.

He looked to be in a hallway an art gallery of sorts, with the walls filled with paintings done with the utmost skill. He was near one end, where a single chair sat, a violin and flute hovered in the air playing as though performers were there. Beside it, the only a massive curtain rested the kind that hid windows or perhaps another piece of art? But he wasn't here to admire the artwork, rather figure out where he was, and leave.

He turned in search of an exit to this hallway, walking down it, though unable to ignore the numerous paintings around him. A good deal of them showed Elizabetha dressed differently, her hair occasionally partially covered. But it was her, and Mathias. If not for the fact of a child in the paintings he would have felt the bitter bile of betrayal and anger again at the sight of the now vampire. The child had the biggest of smiles, or the most endearing of attempts at looking grown up in the paintings. With hair the same color as Elizabetha, the boy was, too, clearly a blend between the two adults to be anything less then their child.

Only Elizabetha had died childless, so if this was where Mathias was hiding, were these paintings a type of story of what he wished to have happened? If that was the case why bring a newly made hunter with a grudge against the man into his very home? Leon couldn't fathom the reason as he moved along, watching as the little boy grew up into a young man.

The paintings told a story, in their own way, as all the paintings involved all three family members. But as the young boy became a young man the paintings stopped being about the trio, instead the young man was often depicted alone, with only the ghostly hands of a lady reaching for him. It raised a question in Leon about the grand painting at the end that he had left behind. Causing him to turn around and return to it. He approached the painting, noting that as he approached the flute and violin rose back up and resumed playing. Apparently once he got out of earshot they stopped on their own.

Pushing past the curtains he found an incomplete portrait, the hands that had hovered over the young man were now spread, reaching for two figures. One being the young man from the paintings again, he stood as though guarding something behind him. A serious expression on his face, with a half drawn sword, yet the apparent center piece was empty. So incomplete in fact that he couldn't figure out who or what was supposed to be there, was it supposed to be Mathias?

There was something about the incompleteness of the painting itself that disturbed him, the way the painting seemed to be protected by a powerful presence around it. There was something trying to guard this painting, control it even. The focus seemed towards the gaping hole in the center of the piece. Leon didn't understand, maybe there was a brush or something he was supposed to bring back to this piece?

Shaking his head he turned his back on it, letting the curtain fall again as he set back off to find the door out of the room. This time noting when the music stopped playing as he grew further from the painting. He kept looking about, expecting to see maybe a bar, a hole in the ceiling or floor, maybe another hall to take. But with every step it seemed this was nothing more then one long hallway. Concerned and curious about the way the hallway was built, he kept walking until he reached the only door in the long hallway.

He opened the door with a quiet apprehension about what to expect from the other side. Revealing a rather interesting conundrum as it was another very long hallway. There would have to be somewhere that it branched out... a home couldn't be one solid hallway could it? Even so the room was less decorative then the hall he had just been in. Though there seemed to be some distant work being done by the maids to clean the hallway up. That and there was a single blond man in the room as well, seemingly as lost as Leon himself. Well that was at least encouraging, since he felt less foolish with someone else who was just as clueless with him.

"You 'are' human, correct?"

**Present time**

The pair, upon an unspoken decision, opted towards the door that Leon had just passed out of, "I honestly do not know what we will find. There is nothing, but an art gallery of sorts down that way. However; the only door to leave it is what led me here." Leon spoke with a polite tone, informing Jonathan of what to expect.

"Did you try busting up some of the paintings?" Jonathan asked glancing over at Leon, who affected a surprised air.

"We do not idly destroy works of art." He pointed out, not exactly rude or cold, just a touch aloof.

"Well back home fine works of art tend to be where the action is." Jonathan replied with a smirk when Leon gave him a slightly confused look.

"Action?" He repeated baffled by the word, his eyes reflecting his curiosity, even if one was hidden behind blond bangs.

"Uh yeah, you know... Where all the exciting stuff is happening?" Jonathan found himself surprised at the baffled look on Leon's face. Wondering how the proclaimed Belmont of 1999 would 'not' know such a term. "Uh like right now something important could be happening pertaining to our being here in another part of this castle. That's where the 'action' is."

"Oh... I see... Well there was no.. 'action'... in the hallway that I was just in, just paintings and some music being performed. Though on second thought there was one rather disconcerting aspect of the gallery." Leon admitted as they approached the door. Jonathan opened it while Leon continued. "A single painting at the end of the hallway, it was incomplete."

With that the door was yanked out of Jonathan's hand the moment Leon passed the threshold. Alarmed the young man nearly ripped open the door himself to make sure Leon was ok, only there was no one standing on the other side of the door.


	2. An Ancient melody with future words

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

Beta: By no one, can't the editing errors be proof enough of that?

* * *

**Trevor Belmont**

Had the world gone mad? Or had he? How did he wind up here anyways? On a platform within the Outer Wall of the Castle itself? He didn't recall how he wound up where he did, so was he taken in his sleep? If so, then what of Sypha? He quickly stood up, looking about to ascertain his location and situation. A stone platform was what he was resting on, a slight dampness from an evening mist. There was no doubt that if The Castle stood that it would not be approaching dawn. He looked down upon himself, surprised to find that he was fully dressed and armed. Who and why would someone bring him within the den of his most powerful of enemies fully armed? Why not bring him directly to Dracula unarmed, an easy target?

He rolled his shoulders as he took in his location better, unable to locate a single monster or even the sound of one. The whole area seemed eerily silent, even the Castle itself seemed devoid of existence. When he first came to the Castle, the very stones themselves seemed to be possessed of an unholy resonance. Now... now it felt as though he could have been in the wrong castle, or perhaps this castle was merely sleeping. This defied all the logic Trevor had ever had about the Castle, even with the Castle defying a hefty amount of logic in and of itself.

He walked to the edge of the platform, and saw another further down that he could reach. He took a step back before leaping out into the void. He hit the mental mark that he had on the platform, before standing up and checking around him. Trevor felt a bit foolish to think that maybe something would change with moving from one location to a slightly different one. Only nothing changed, it was as though the Castle itself had truly died. He frowned and began descending even faster in concern, as he looked about.

It felt wrong in his Hunters blood as he moved along, as though the prey he was born to hunt had simply vanished. An unnatural void as any that made him start to become more determined to find a monster, something, anything. There was a flicker of something dancing on the edge of his senses that made him turn towards the wall where an opening let the full moon's light spill into the Outer Wall. But it was what manifested itself as he looked that startled him.

A ghost, it could be nothing else with the way the light continued to pour through her form. But she was mostly lost to a smoky haze. Her bright blond hair was bound up from behind, while her bangs framed her face as her eyes gazed at him. She looked at him for a moment, something about her eyes said she was not happy to see him. Probably only politeness kept her from saying or doing anything to show her displeasure.

The discontentment he felt about the Castle only intensified with that, as the only other being he had run into already seemed displeased to see him. Monsters he could handle, but a non aggressive spirit? That was something completely different, one in which Vampire Killer didn't react to. He had never faced a ghost that was not a threat, even if they ignorantly danced through the air. A ghost was just another servant of Dracula. Weren't they? She suddenly moved forward, her expression serious as she emulated walking towards the next flight of stairs. He moved to the side out of instinct, just in case she tried anything, but all she did was go down to the floor below and point?

Curious he moved down after her and that's when he finally began to hear the occasional rattling of something. He turned to look at the ghost only to find she was gone, leaving him with a question of what to do next. Well maybe the source of the sound would be able to give Trevor a clue? The sound was irregular, making it more a chance that this was a living or unliving being. The discontentment that came from the silence that consumed the Castle made his desire to hunt down the sound only the stronger.

Below him he could make out a long vivid red coat and surprisingly white hair of a stranger reaching for something in a cage. The stranger was on his knees and given the sound of the rattling clearly the stranger had something of importance caught in the cage.

**Juste Belmont**

Juste woke with a start, his alarm beginning to grow as he realized he wasn't back in his home. He sat at a table with a large dark jar before him, windows around the room showed a night sky with clouds idly floating by. The lack of glass also allowing him the pleasure of feeling the evening chill which had begun to seep into his body. He pushed his white hair out of his face as stood up from the table and began investigating the room he was in.

There was a hole in the ceiling that showed another building above with a chain, and probably a mate to it, holding the room he was in up. Beyond that there wasn't much to the room he was in, at least until he turned around and saw the telescope. Curious, and hopeful that he would find a clue, he looked through it and saw nothing, but a large expansive lake. The lake's horizon was a deep dark forest, the pale moon light ghosted over the green leaves.

"Lovely."

Shaking his head he realized that there was no other way out of this room save the hole in the roof. He stepped onto the chair then the table before climbing onto the rim of the pot, getting out of the room only proved a single point though. There was only one place insane enough to have a room hanging from a pair of chains over a lake. Back in the Castle of Count Dracula, he could only hope that Lydia and Maxim were safe.

Calling up his powers he double jumped up his way out of the hanging room, only to find a very... well very empty Castle. Where were the monsters that were supposed to kill him? He could see as he moved about a series a platforms so shouldn't there have been Bats or Medusa Heads waiting to knock him off from them? They couldn't just flood the area the moment he started could they? Now that he thought about it the Castle felt like it was sleeping. The magic that resonated with the rage that Dracula held seemed to be slumbering. Something that as a Vampire Hunter he found disconcerting. After all why would the Castle be back if not as a threat?

He moved along leaping up on to the first platform, there was no point in staying in one spot forever after all. He anticipated being attacked the moment his foot touched the ground, so his hand was already wrapped firmly around Vampire Killer. Only nothing happened, he didn't know if he should have felt proud that the monsters were avoiding him or disturbed at something worse may have taken over.

Juste continued jumping up from level to level looking about, noting the silence and unguarded doors. But for now he was just going to explore where he was, before he went inside the Castle itself. There was a hole in the ceiling that looked to extend to another level of the area which he took to checking out. He began to wish he had someone there to talk to, something to take away the gnawing silence that was eating away at him.

There was something wrong about this whole set up, the Whip should not have been so silent it could have been sleeping. The Castle was 'here' and he knew right down to his blood that the Whip had not been swapped so why wasn't anything feeling right? The aura's were docile, the conflict that helped awaken Vampire Killer into action was all but gone. He began fingering his tomes trying to find what would be useful in action against the Castle if it suddenly woke back up. He passed another door before coming to something rather interesting. A... Cage? The doorless a corridor gilded in darken metal that rose up a small shaft to someplace above? Oh and what was that thing that was glowing?

Curious and privately grateful for something other then a cold sterile castle to look at, when it wasn't 'supposed' to be a cold sterile castle, Juste opted to investigate. Jumping from platform to platform he reached the top of the shaft. It was an open door with hovering orb of light, one that sent a wolf's howl into his mystical senses. He walked forward wondering what purpose it could have in being here when the metal floor he had been standing on gave way. Alarmed he jerked back, but not before the tip of Vampire Killer was snatched by the metal.

Cursing, he reached for the weapon, but despite the supernatural strength his family was known for... Well Juste was more magic user then warrior, he could only swear at the humiliating situation.

**Present Time**

The Whip laid coiled inside a cage of darken metal and the cage door that barred the white haired young man mocked the annoyed hunter. What else could he be within these walls, but another hunter after all? A hunter that was tensing up as he approached, with a book and... was that a cross in his other hand?

"Identify yourself!" The young man twisted to his feet, the cage to his back and it 'was' a book and a cross in his hands.

"Trevor Belmont of the Belmont Clan." He replied looking at the stranger who looked back at him like he had lost his mind.

"What? Trevor died over a hundred years ago!" Juste replied his distrust growing in his tone, and not sure of what to think when the stranger began checking his own pulse.

"No, I'm still alive, and what do you mean by 'over a hundred years ago'? It's 1480." The stranger looked alarmed and began looking around at the Castle as though some clue as to what was going on would manifest itself. Personally Trevor wished it would, this ordeal had just gotten far more strange then what the Castle could produce.

"No, it's 1749..." then as though unsure of himself he added, "isn't it?"

That... was a vast leap in terms of time... No wonder the Hunter was baffled and confused. Mentally shrugging it off Trevor walked down a few more steps his hands open to show no ill intent. "To what may I address you as?"

"Juste." The name came out short terse, still distracted and confused, the hunter suddenly added with a proud lift of his head, "Belmont of the Belmont Clan."

It was awkward yet unique and rather special at the same time. If what the other said was true, then Trevor was indeed facing one of his descendants. While on the other side of the same coin, Juste was trying to wrap his brain around the idea. That he was standing before the First of his clan to face and defeat Dracula. Yet he could only feel ashamed that he had mishandled and lost Vampire Killer.

"So what happened?" Trevor asked walking the rest of the way down, why would Juste be in the Castle if he didn't wield the Whip?

"The sphere above us, I found it and was trying to reach it when this mechanical beast shook to life. The Whip got caught and ripped out of my hand." Ripped had been the nice word, it had dislocated the wrist and been painfully reset by Juste while on the run down the steps. Even now holding the cross hurt something fierce.

"Are you ok?" After all this was one of his great grandchildren right? Regardless of the whip's condition Trevor was more concerned about the yet to be born member of his family. Juste tucked one hand behind his back, supposedly to tuck the cross back where it belonged. But Trevor could see the tale tell signs that there had been an injury.

He considered pointing out the obvious injury, but pride was also injured with the loss of the Whip. Juste was trying to hide it as he stowed away his cross, but until it was mended and the Whip recovered... Then again something 'did' strike him as a bit curious.

"You mentioned an orb before. Where is it? I have seen nothing that stood out of this Castle since I awoke. Save one ethereal form," he replied gesturing up towards where he had awoken far above them.

"Did you not see it? It is right there... At the top of this shaft." Trevor didn't react like he saw anything, but Juste was positive he did. "A magical item?"

"Oh... well in that case probably not, Sypha is much better at that then I am." Trevor replied with a shrug, a truth that Sypha often lamented about. "We should go through, there must be something going on with the Castle that must be resolved."

Juste looked down and away, probably back towards the Whip before shaking his head. "I... Will stay here, I dare not risk someone coming along and taking the Whip."

Trevor nodded, he needed to find a potion, something to heal Juste's injuries, then they could go about retrieving the Whip and exploring the Castle. "Very well then, I'll go, but I'll be back once I find something to help open that gate."

"Thank you, Trevor," Juste replied looking back at the Whip where it laid coiled on the ground.

"See you soon." With that Juste was left alone in the Outer Wall.


	3. Candles that were in the wind

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

Beta: Well, me.

* * *

**Stella and Loretta**

"Sister!" Stella woke up with a pounding headache fading away. But it fading away didn't help in the here and now at the moment. The sound of her sister's urgent voice made her open her eyes though. After all she was supposed to look after Loretta, she couldn't do that if she was sleeping now could she? Instead she forced her eyes to open, a hand promptly falling over them to shade them from the light.

"I'm up Loretta, what is going on?" She asked as she began pushing herself up to a sitting position. The room was vast, there was no other floors and a door near the roof. Not even platforms to jump up in order to get out of the room. But then her eyes went down to the floor, just to find that the ground was covered in skulls. Her expression displayed her alarm as Loretta followed her up.

"I do not know Sister. I woke up in a room beyond here, I found you here, laying on the ground." Loretta explained as she got up as well, her expression not all that different from before. Then again Loretta was rather good at subduing her own emotions. But she gestured towards the way she had come, the door behind them being on the ground floor.

Neither girls had any desire to stand on the skulls of the dead, as such they took to floating a foot off the ground while trying to get their bearings. The skulls and other assortment of bones stretched on for what seemed like miles, the room was just huge! But at the same time it was empty, there was just the bones yellowed by time and walls.

"One would think this to be the Castle of Dracula, however... it's so quiet here. The silence has to be the most foreboding thing about it." Stella noted before she took to floating towards that distant door up against the upper wall. Loretta was on her heels keeping her thoughts to herself for awhile. But as they passed through the door she found the need to speak.

"Sister... The Castle... could someone else taken over the Castle as before? This place feels so different now."

Stella, thus Loretta, paused at that, her heeled shoes clicking ever so faintly as she landed on the rocky ground to think. Her brows furrowed in thought before her face smoothed itself of any doubt. "Possibly, if so it must be dealt with, which means finding Jonathan and Charlotte."

"Of course, Sister." Loretta replied as they took to floating off again, their dresses barely off the ground. They dipped down the passage and across an empty path when Loretta opted to speak again. "We should help them Sister. The more Jonathan uses the Vampire Killer the more of his own life he will lose."

"Agreed, what his father experienced from over using the Whip should not befall him as well." Stella nodded as they checked a hole in the ceiling. It proved to be a dead end, so they returned to the main hall. The next room they came across was filled with more dead, though many of these dead had been nailed to the wall. Each corpse looked as though they had been frozen to their spot and died there. While time decayed the bodies they never fell, forever preserved in their stances of respect for those who walked by. It was ghastly and disturbing, something that the girls didn't see during their first trip through the Castle.

In fact everything about this passage did not appear when they first came. So did the Castle change it's form every time it was resummoned? If that was the case what were they going to do about finding anyone or a way out?

"You have not lost your spells Loretta?" Stella asked calmly as she looked out from the passage towards a large cave like structure.

"I have them still Sister."

"Then let us travel." She stated as she called forth her own magical sword. But they were halted by a sudden scream in the distance.

**Charlotte Aulin**

The smell of paper filled her nose as she slowly pushed herself up from the ground. Had she fallen asleep while reading again? She blinked the sleep from her eyes only to find herself surrounded by a whole lot of 'not' home. For a moment she thought she was having a nightmare, actually she hoped she was. All around her was rough stone and a passage ahead, but where was she? In a huff she picked up her book, gave it a good dust off and set out towards another room that had a lantern hanging from a chain.

How did she get here though? How could someone have removed her from her home and bring her to this, possibly, remote location? There was a steady light an overhanging lantern it's light, along with it's mate a short spot away, illuminated a wall of shelves with parts of skeletons resting inside small rectangular holes. It was a hallway of stone, something that didn't really surprise Charlotte. The kidnappers probably thought she was just some stupid little girl who would get scared.

Boy, were they going to be surprised when they found her again! She wasn't just 'any' girl! She was Charlotte Aulin! A member of a long line of witches that were going to totally going to beat up these kidnappers! She began to pass under another hanging lamp when something caught her attention. She turned to find herself staring at a a skull that was resting upon a shelf, but upon closer inspection she found nothing really spectacular about it. Save perhaps the tons of dust that caused a sneezing fit to erupt from her.

"Ugh, well it's to be expected, I mean it 'is' a cave." She noted turning her head as though she expected a certain male blond standing over her shoulder. But no one stood there, she stood alone in an empty hallway. Her face shifted into a sad expression before shifting into an annoying one. They had been friends for so long, had traveled together. It felt unnatural to be without him, while at the same time she tried to make herself not miss him.

"I'm a big girl, I can handle this myself, why bother Jonathan over nothing?" Sure Jonathan would probably worry, he always insisted that Charlotte was a child. Which she wasn't, but that was just how he was. It was like being brother and sister, she expected the teasing even while she hoped he wouldn't worry much over her.

She always got teased as being a learning nut, someone who always knew exactly what a situation was about. But that was only in terms of magic and the aspects about Dracula. There was probably a logical reason she got kidnapped and not realize it. Only it wasn't something she was taught to know about, as it didn't pertain to Dark Lord.

"WOAH!" Arms pinwheeling rapidly she pulled back in time before walking off the edge of the hallway. Her spellbook clutched close to her chest, she struggled to catch her breath from her shock as she looked down at the long fall she nearly took. Already her mind telling her where she would have possibly split her head open from the fall.

From where she stood she could see a series of large stone cliffs that jutted out of the walls for her to land on. Well, maybe it would lead out if she went down there? But first, she looked about, squinting her eyes to make sure no one was around that could look up her dress. Finally confident that no one was going to see up her skirt, she jumped out into the void, first landing on the first cliff, then jumping to the ground.

There was a passage ahead of her as well as one behind her, the lanterns were even here, lighting the way both in front of her and behind her. Looking between the two she finally opted to go to the passage behind her. Hopefully it was like a typical cave and it would lead to the way out, after all there had been those lanterns aiming this way.

She walked along keeping an eye out for bats and other little nasties that might have swooped down on her. Upon getting closer to the passage she found to her surprise what looked like glittering stones of black twinkling in the light from the lanterns. What was it? A black stone... Cat's eye or obsidian? Curious she walked up towards it...

**Present Time**

There was a benefit to floating through the air, there was no sound of shoes on the ground to distract from the sounds around a person. Allowing her to focus more on listening to what was going on around her. But the ruffles of her dress were a distraction. One that Loretta didn't share as her sister went floating off more decisively in a direction. Then again Loretta wore a less ruffled dress, which probably explained why she went off towards the center of the room.

Stella floated up towards the upper part of the room, where a hanging lantern illuminated enough that she could see only a wall off to the right of her in the distance, and a rough looking hallway towards her left.

"Sister!" But it was her sister's call that got her quickly floating herself back to the ground floor and towards the other side of the room.

"Loretta? Where are you?" She could barely make out the glint of light off the buttons on Loretta's boots.

"Sister, someone is here... Help me."

Stella did as told, her shoes brushing against something while her hands reached into the darkness questing for some sign of her sister. Loretta's bow was the first thing she felt, the girl was bent over trying to lift something, something crying, up. Her hand found her sister's shoulder and quickly she followed it down to what her sister was touching. A body, rigid in fear, rested below her while Loretta floated above trying to keep the body from going lower.

"Spikes sister. There are spikes on the ground."

"Oh no..." Stella wasted no time in grabbing the first limb she could find and pulling up, the pair of girls floating themselves up with the stranger in their arms before floating out of the room. But who it was, startled them though it was Stella who gave their surprise a voice. "Charlotte!"

They rushed her to the ground, looking over her for injuries though a part of their minds could only mock them for such silly thoughts. Of course she was hurt, she apparently tripped into the spikes in the room. Perhaps she didn't realize there were spikes? No matter though, she was heavily injured with the spikes having pierced her hands and tore their way into her body. Leaving bone exposed in some places, the pulsing of organs in others and Charlotte was so scared.

The girl was shivering and with a look to her dilated eyes shock was imminent or occurring. The twins were lacking in any healing potions or spells though, and nothing had been visibly resting where they had gone so far within the Castle. "Charlotte heal yourself!"

"Book."

"Book?" Stella lifted up her head to look around as Loretta began floating back into the room with the spikes.

"She must mean her spell book, I have yet to see her cast without it."

A fact that marked the difference between a direct and off shoot blood line, all the Aulins required an item. For Charlotte she needed a spellbook to focus her magic with, for her mother it was the stones she wore on a necklace she owned. But regardless of the item, that family branch required something to focus their energies through. Without the spellbook, Charlotte's needed healing spell was useless.

"Here," Loretta floated out of the room, a blood stained book, with a few holes in the cover now, was presented to the wounded witch.

Stella took the book, opening it as she did so before she handed it to Charlotte. The twins took hold of the witch's arms in order to help stabilize her grip on the book. Flesh dangled down where the spikes had ripped open the arms. Fresh blood continued to spill from the wounds while the once pristine schoolgirl uniform bloomed with blood red stains. While trembling lips struggled with the words needed to activate the healing spell.


	4. Dangerous Ladies

Let the Symphony last for Eternity

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

Beta: ...

"Something is wrong... The castle's gone mad hasn't it?" Maria asked, as her doves rested upon her, one on her shoulder, one on her wrist. It was this dove that she was stroking gently as she walked along the cave floor. "Seems odd, walk through a door in the clock tower and here I am, deep underground."

The imbalance of the Castle unnerved even her animal partners, causing the doves cooing to softly echo into the caves they found themselves in. She couldn't fathom how this was even happening as she worked her way down further into the caves. She needed to find Richter, yet at the same time how was she going to do that? It was one thing to walk into a castle that looked a 'little' off from how she remembered things. It was another thing entirely to have a castle that didn't seem to know which way was 'up'.

If it had been only the clock tower, Maria wouldn't have minded as much, if at all. A simple trick door is nothing to get worried over after all. But from the moment she had entered the Castle, it was as though 'every' single door lead to a completely different part of the castle. Looking out the windows only confirmed it, having been shown completely different directions outside the castle each time. Sometimes the moon was to the right, other times the left, sometimes she couldn't even 'see' it because it was on the other side of the castle. Perhaps if the castle radiated Dracula's presence like it normally did, like it 'always' did, then there wouldn't have been a problem.

But the Castle itself was eerily dead inside, the monsters she expected to find were either passive or non existent. She had seen monsters that had human like physical builds cleaning, mending the castle, or they had been sleeping, idle, inattentive to Maria's presence. In some places she felt as though she wasn't even visible to the monsters, as though they ignored her for whatever reason. Her animals didn't like the undead, they defied the laws of nature causing anxiety within them. Maria just didn't like the current situation. This 'had' to be Dracula's castle, so why did the place feel like it was sleeping? Where was the sense of danger that normally overwhelmed a person?

She walked along, blind to the surroundings once she gave a cursor glance to ensure her safety as she passed by. No Medusa Heads in the Clock Tower, nesting Harpies, simply put the Castle was completely baffling to her mind. She was just shy of walking up to a monster, waving her arms and demanding to be attacked. Which was her explanation as to her elation upon hearing other voices in the distance. Even her doves seemed happier as they flew off and down deeper into the cave she was in, their shadows being cast along the walls from the lit lanterns. She jumped down, the soft snapping of the ribbons in her hair distorting any sound she may have heard otherwise.

While she liked this outfit, it just was a poor vampire hunting outfit all together. Not enough ribbon to even bind up her hair. Far more leg and cleavage showing then she was willing to tolerate given the surroundings. But that was a thought put on the shelf as she caught sight of her doves, hovering in the air by wing flaps and cooing at what was before them. Two, no three women were before her across the span of the cave. One stood in a frilled dress of pink with a solid blue high collar, revealing bust line and her hair up in an elaborate style. The blue wasn't just in the collar, but also the trim and the forearm length gloves she wore. Oh and she had a rapier in her hand with a look of business on her face. Important to note that.

Suddenly Maria didn't feel so bad, here was another woman stuck in the castle of Dracula, poorly dressed for this venture.

But beyond her, there was another pair of women, one was clearly in pain, and that pain is what got Maria's attention first. Though not a woman as it turned out, the injured one was clearly the youngest, possibly still going to school. While the third woman looked to be twins with the one holding the sword. Yet unlike the one with the sword she dressed more conservatively, in muted colors of cold gray blue mixtures.

"Who are you?" The one with the sword took charge immediately, prepared to defend the other girls. But the doves were not upset by the presence of these strangers, so Maria could only guess they were human, and not evil. It also helped that her two doves returned to her and showed no sign of anxiety towards the trio of women.

"My name is Maria Renard, I'm the sister in law of Richter Belmont," Maria answered confidently, granted she was Anette's adopted sister... But that was a negligible fact and right now, these people were honest so said her friends. So right then the importance was in taking care of the wounded girl who was reading something. Magic, Richter's grandfather was skilled in magic so Maria had come to recognize a few signs. Like the entranced way the girl seemed look at the book in her lap, reading despite her grave injuries.

"Richter Belmont is dead. He died decades ago, no one even knows when or how," the woman pointed out, her hand on the sword's hilt tightening.

But the statement left Maria stunned as she stood there, all but gaping at the accusation, "I assure you he is most certainly not! He wasn't even alive decades ago!"

"The history never stated what happened to him. After events involving the Castle, the clan itself seemed to disappear from the world," the girl who had been in a trance spoke suddenly to them. Her voice was a tired, dried reedy voice sapped of strength due to her ordeal. "The Morris clan was given the Whip for safe keeping while the Belmonts stayed in hiding."

"No, you're lying! Richter wouldn't hide the clan from the world! He's been kidnapped, which is why I'm here! I need to find him!" Maria couldn't stop the panic that was being seeded into her voice from growing. Gone? No, these people had to be wrong.

"You speak of the Belmont in the present tense, where as for us, it is the past..." the other woman noted, collected and uninjured, she began to stand up as well.

"Who are you people? How dare you say that Richter is dead and the clan missing!"

"We dare for it is the truth, you say that you are 'Maria Renard', there was such a woman in the history of the Belmont clan. As for ourselves, my name is Loretta LeCarde, this is my elder sister Stella LeCarde, and the young lady with us is Charlotte Aulin, a member of the Belnades clan. Since we are all introduced, perhaps the most important question at the moment is: what year is this?"

It was in the moment when Maria automatically blurted out '1798' while Stella announced '1945' that they got a scope of the situation.

"Castle, you've outdone yourself," Maria snarked quietly, as she stood there trying to grasp what she just heard. Then she attempted to get a hold of the situation again, "so you're saying that outside it is 1945, while it was 1798 when I entered it?"

There was a long pause after that remark, followed by Charlotte's less in pained voice, "that's a new one for the history books."

"So you entered this castle of your own free will?" Stella asked, her hand resting on her hip and this look on her face like nothing was adding up.

"At least she entered, I woke up on the floor," Charlotte interjected into the conversation.

"We as well woke up in another part of this cav..." Loretta suddenly broke off as something clicked between the twins.

"Castle? 'The' Castle? Are you saying that this is the Castle of Dracula?" Stella looked about in growing disbelief, at least now Maria wasn't alone in that feeling. "Where are the monsters? The seemingly all consuming hate and evil that permeated?"

"Would explain the spiked floor," Charlotte quipped into the conversation as she slowly began climbing to her feet.

"Yes, it would that..." Loretta agreed in her neutral way of talking.

"I... I don't know... I was looking for Richter, who has gone missing, when the Castle seemingly materialized before me. I thought Richter might have come here to investigate and it's..." Maria stopped for a moment in her dialog, pressing a hand to her head. While her two doves nestled down on either shoulder, cooing softly to each other. "I go through any set of doors and I find myself in a completely new location. It wasn't all that long ago that I traveled through this Castle aiding Richter. Now... I went from being in the clock tower to here just by taking a door."

"So at this moment we know, that if we take any door we come across, the odds are that we will not end up in the proper room. Rather we will be teleported to a different location in this castle. Further more; we can no longer say we know for a fact what point in time itself that we are in," Loretta spoke up as she allowed Charlotte to lean against her. Until the young witch regained her strength, Loretta took over as the voice of logical reason for the girls.

"Your birds, can't they tell anything? Animals are supposed to be more aware of their surroundings then humans," Stella noted., observing the doves from her position.

"No, each room has upset them, though at the time I couldn't understand why. But now I think I know, if I've been warped from one wing to another wing higher up and lower down each time... They don't have enough time or visual cues outside to get their barrings. I must find Richter, he would be able to help us," Maria replied, lifting a hand up so the doves could land on it. Before she introduced the pair to the women she just met. The doves still did not react badly towards the women, cementing Maria's inner feeling that these people weren't evil.

"So first we need to find a door that leads out of here," Charlotte noted looking about, though not behind her.

"There's one up above, and more then likely that door will take us somewhere completely different," Maria suggested, with a gesture from where she had come.

"I... I can't make that yet..." Charlotte noted, as she stood there.

"Of course you can, we can carry you up there easily," Stella replied simply with a shrug. "Come, we need to get to the bottom of this. If this is the Castle, we can not allow for Jonathan to use Vampire Killer."

"Why not? I'm going to assume this Jonathan person is from your time, but why shouldn't he wield it? Richter told me that once the whip is passed down it belongs to that person," that and Stella didn't sound as though the type to care about a villian.

"He is not a Belmont, when Richter disappeared the Whip was left with the Morris clan. Though the Morris family is an offshoot of the Belmont clan they are not meant to wield the whip. His father died because he over used it, his wounds refusing to heal and eventually death overtook him," Stella began, followed up by her sister.

"We of the LeCarde family hold the duty of safeguarding the whip, our power allows for the whip to be sealed, made useless. Therefore it can be carried by anyone, though it can not work against the undead as it does in the hands of a Belmont. But we also are capable of unsealing the whip's power. If Jonathan is put back into the Castle, forced to face Dracula again alone, he may rely on the Whip."

"And it has been unsealed, I never heard of this from Richter, though I suppose it's because it's never been handed over. But I see your point, if he's here, or not we need to get you ladies back home soon," Maria nodded as she spoke. But how was Stella and Loretta going to help Charlotte up the long drops? Not to mention Stella's dress.

"Do you think it's possible that he was brought here?" Charlotte asked as she leaned against Loretta as they moved.

"It's possible, the castle could be just resetting rooms he's been in, or the strange calm that seems to have taken over has something to do with it. If he has nothing to fight, then there's nothing to damage... But, say, I have a question," Maria stopped walking and turned back to the trio. "If you're from the future, do you know how I found Richter again?"

"No, only that he disappeared. The Morris clan is part of the remains of the Belmont clan. We don't even know who or where the direct descendant is, only that he will return to claim the whip when the time is right."

Maria didn't reply, the answer disturbed her in that perhaps she wouldn't find Richter? That he would just up and leave, abandoning Anette and the clan? But no, he took the clan with him, so what happened? What would happen in the Castle, if Richter was here?

"Something happened, but don't think so hard on it Ms. Renard, we know that he didn't disappear in the Castle. Because the Belmont clan is destined to have a final battle against Dracula in 1999AD. So somehow this will be resolved," Charlotte spoke up, trying to encourage Maria.

"Oh you don't have to call me 'Ms. Renard', Maria is just fine Charlotte," Maria looked back at the young witch. Yet suddenly the cave seemed a little darker then before, the shadows longer upon the ground. "Wait did anyone else notice anything?"

"Yes, I think perhaps, one of the lanterns have died out," Stella noticed, the grip on her rapier tightening.

"Wait... look!" Loretta grabbed Maria and pulled the woman back with her. While off in the distance a two hovering flames seemed to float steadily towards them. After a bit of watching they saw a squat old man with a lantern walking along with a floating Imp by his side.

"Light's gone out, best to be fixin' that 'fore the master shows up," the old man told the Imp. The Imp seemed to reply in some form of gibberish before floating up and returning after a bit with what looked to be a dark lantern. The girls exchanged glances as the man opened the gate to the lantern, replaced the melted candle, then lit it using his own lantern.

As the pair of monsters went on their way the girls stepped back out to where they had been.

"That's what's been happening through out the Castle. I've been in rooms filled with monsters just doing stuff like that. Either they're cleaning, fixing, or just roaming about, but they don't seem to even notice me. I was about ready to start shouting to get their attention because it's just..." Maria shivered as she spoke.

"It's like we're not even here, and the Castle is setting up... Did you hear what he said?" Charlotte replied in agreement towards the creepiness.

"How he implied the Master was going to show up? Yes, perhaps Dracula has not awaken yet and the castle is preparing for it," Loretta acknowledged with a worried frown.

"But Maria's age is wrong for it, she was younger when the Castle arrived with Dracula, if she's returned... There is simply too much important information I don't have," Charlotte lamented as she stood there.

"Perhaps it's not Dracula, therefore the monsters are reacting differently? What if Brauner wasn't the first to steal the castle from Dracula?" Stella suggested as they approached the newly relit area.

"Wait... someone... someone 'stole' this castle from Dracula?" Maria asked in amazement turning to face the girls.

"Yes, by sealing Dracula up in the Throne room, Brauner took over the castle... or at the very least was able to live in it without obeying Dracula." Loretta explained, while she and her sister both got on either side of Charlotte, before they flew up to the next level of the cave. Holding the witch between them as they went aloft. Maria leaping up after them and landing next to them as they waited for her.

"I never thought a vampire would betray Dracula."

"He blamed Dracula's constant defeats at the hands of the Belmonts as the reason why his daughters died... He... wasn't well in the head..." Charlotte explained, not wanting to bring up with Brauner did to the LeCarde sisters. With that the conversation slowly died, the sisters concentrating on helping Charlotte get up towards the door. Having to carry another body being a drain on their magic, while Maria was left pondering what happened to Richter.

It wasn't until they reached the seemingly innocent door that they discovered what Maria meant. While Stella supported Charlotte's body way, the young witch opened the door and the pair stepped into the next room. Only to have a hard wind push the other two away as the door slammed shut behind them.

"Sister!" Loretta cried out, flinging open the door to race after her twin, ignoring Maria's cry for her to wait. A hand grasping her arm was ignored as she dashed through into....


	5. Old Friends

Castlevania: Let the Symphony last for Eternity

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

A/N: This is the first time that a pair didn't get separated before the chapter ended! But that's mostly because I'm trying to keep a theme going.

* * *

Clearly the castle had learned a few new tricks since his last foray into it. A trip through the oddest garden had produced nothing for Trevor to go on. So he had planned on returning to Juste's side to make sure his, as odd as it was to think of the term, future descendant was still well. Even if the garden was empty of violent monsters, only non hostile gardeners were present, he did feel a sense of duty to look after Juste. The man was currently unarmed and injured to boot, all because of Trevor activating that odd sort of switch.

So how could the door that brought him to that odd garden suddenly take him to this long hallway? Long arrow headed shaped windows paced themselves across to the other side, a long thick red carpet sprawled forward to a large door. A storm raging out side now, it's lightning flashes brightening the room more then the lit candles. Rain beat the windows like the tapping anger fingers of God wanting an explanation. Personally? Trevor wanted one as well, because none of this made the slightest bit of sense. The great doors behind him suddenly flung open upon it's own, he hoped, and a figure came walking out that got him to stop and stare. Then he grinned.

"Grant? Grant, old friend it's been a while!"

The lanky pirate stared at him in equal surprise before his lips curled into a smile of pleasure. "Trevor, how have you been mate?" Pirates had their own style, one of Grant's level of importance should have been wearing finer things. But this was a hands on type of pirate and Grant was not the type to dress up when there were things he needed to do.

"I was well until I woke up here, by any chance do you know what's going on?" Trevor asked, after all nothing got past a pirate. So maybe Grant had seen something?

But the pirate merely shook his head unable to give a proper answer. "Sorry my friend, but I am baffled by this place as you."

**Grant**

Above him rested the rotating gears of clock parts that gave him a moment of mental horror. Had it been naught but a dream? Had his freedom from Dracula's hands been only a mere illusion to play with his feelings more? Grant lifted his hands to his face, apprehension filling him as the muscles worked to lift up his appendages. What would he see? Would it be those big beefy hands of a monster? Would...

Only work gloves, stiff, thick leather gloves of a working man rose into his field of vision. With that he sat up, confirming visually that he was still human. Human and in some part of a clock tower apparently. Grant pushed himself to his feet, examining the situation further around him, the floor before him began to crumble under his weight. Jumping back to where he had been, he realized that this place probably wasn't safe. A glance back up though, showed that the tower wasn't in total disrepair...

A sigh and a shrug later, he had pulled out his climbing gloves, before looking up and down at the place. Which way to go? Well logically the ground floor would hold the door, at least he hoped that was the case as he walked. Then again the tower had a chill that made him think perhaps it was based underground and went up. He was just grateful that he had woken up fully dressed, as he began his trip down the oddly placed metal stairs. As he landed deftly upon a small platform, he caught a sight of gold dashing across the distant ground, two soft white colored beings flying close behind.

But it was like a ghost or a gust of air, there and gone, but clearly a woman. Couldn't be Sypha, but at least it was a person and he could ask for directions. Quick nimble feet brought him to the ground floor before he followed the archway she had taken. But a glance into the next room gave him two things to consider, the first being the deadly spikes from the ground across from him on the other side of the room. The next was the sight of said lady leaping gracefully into the air like no human he had ever seen before.

Between the spikes and the inhumanly leaping lady, Grant came to a conclusion he seriously did not like. Rushing to the first wall, he began ascending the tower room in an effort to try and catch this woman. But even from a distance he could see her leaving through a set of doors and his call for her to stop went unanswered. Scaling the walls he noted the nesting Harpy across from him with a look of pure disbelief. It wasn't. There was no way that the Castle could have returned, true it 'did' return again after Dracula's defeat... but Trevor dealt with that event himself! If this was the castle of Dracula, was that woman a servant of the evil Count?

**The Entryway**.

"Another woman? Can you describe her better? I have seen a blond haired apparition, but she didn't seem the type to run," Trevor noted, a concerned look in his eyes. After all it was hard not to recall the aloof lady ghost who directed him... Though now that he thought further on it, he wondered if the reason she pointed down was for the purpose of finding Juste? Who was that lady? Refined and clearly of good breeding, why would such a woman exist inside the castle?

"Aye, she had long blond hair, seemed to be wearing green and had little in the way o' modesty, and seemed to have a pair of birds with her too small to be seagulls... But what o' it?" Grant scratched at the back of his neck as he tried to recall all of it. "She could be a shifter of sorts right?"

"That's true, but... the ghost was too cold, there was a resentment in her eyes as she looked at me. As though I had done some wrong to her, but she never spoke, and I didn't think to ask..." Trevor shook his head before looking down the long hallway. He recounted his tale of waking up in the castle, from meeting the ghost, to Juste even the oddness of the silent garden.

"A man claiming to be a Belmont from the future? You sure the man didn't hit his head hard on something? Or maybe a demon in human guise?" it was a rational concern from Grant, only Sypha and Alucard had any skill at detecting such deception. Trevor and Grant only had their gut instincts to tell them if something was evil, and that required being right in the presence of said being.

"No, I feel as though I should believe him. Through the gates of the cage he was at, the Vampire Killer rested there. Also... there was just something in the man's eyes, he was a skilled hunter, but he had that something... I want to believe his words."

But if that was the case, then what madness had taken the Castle? A potential, future Belmont currently in one part of the castle, doors that took a person to vastly different areas only to not allow a person back to where they had just been. Perhaps Sypha's elemental skills would be less useful in a situation like this, instead perhaps Alucard's aid would have been better. After all, he had been raised in this Castle, the in's and out's would possibly make more sense.

At the same time, there was a reluctance in Trevor's heart to bring Alucard back into the fray. There was a reason why the dhampire opted to leave and go into hiding after all, though perhaps Hector would have been able to provide some insight on the nature of the castle. Since he formally worked here, the retired Devil ForgeMaster had to have some idea of how the castle could possibly be acting like this.

"Odd huh? We be thinking the Castle like it's a person all it's own. Yet, what else can we do? Is Dracula even here? After all the monsters seem rather..." In the distance another archway reveled a darken path, and with no other idea, the pair made their way there. "Was the castle like this the last time you came?"

"No, that's also an odd aspect, when I returned to this place it was no different then the first time I came. While it was changed, drastically, from our journey through the castle there was still the same twisted logic as before. Now... Now the monsters that I see do not care to attack, either they ignore me or..." Even now, as his thoughtful gaze went down, he noted the clean dark red carpet under their feet. "It is as though the monsters of this castle are in the process setting up the building for the arrival of their master. But if that is the case, then the cleaning seems a bit odd... Look at the carpet below us, the blood stains are gone, the castle almost seems unable to decide what it wants out of itself."

"Aye, like it can't decide if it wants to horrify or be a normal castle," Grant agreed, nodding as he flipped a dagger in his hand. So far he had no use to even 'use' a weapon, so the pirate was left with an ever growing urge to keep his knife in his hands. There should have been zombies, there should have been forces of evil trying to kill them, the lack of it was beginning to dance on his nerves. When he fought Dracula alone, there had been a great deal of cruelty in the Vampire Lord. Playing with weak prey, Dracula had used his power to disfigure the weaker pirate into a large ungainly troll. Such a cruel punishment was fitting of a Vampire Lord, yet this new change in the castle defied that type of personality.

He felt completely out of his element, even the bedecked ballrooms of nobles wouldn't have as great an effect on him as this castle. Fighting the undead, or standing upon a traveling ship, those were things he had come to know. This? This was an unknown that he didn't know how to handle, having Trevor be as uncertain of the current situation didn't make him feel any better either. Amid the flashes of lightning he found Trevor's attention riveted to the windows, gazing outside. "Trevor?"

"There were no storm clouds before, the moon shown upon an unclouded night sky where I had met Juste, yet here..." How was this even possible? The wind was howling, causing the barren branches of the distant trees to bend low. Rain lashed at the windows like millions of whips while lightning lanced the sky to the ground akin to the javelins of the gods. Thunder rattled the windows with enough force that occasionally a window would burst open. The fury of wind would keep it swaying wildly before banging shut again, a storm that was the only act of violence around the castle it seemed. Yet ironically for all the noise this storm created, it was utterly peaceful on the other side of the self same castle.

Then there was the ghost and the leaping lady, were they the same person? Trevor didn't think so given the description, the lady at the window's hair was not as long as Grant described. Further more, she wasn't a solid being when he saw her. Though one could, understandably, argue that he saw her in natural light, and it could have dispelled any 'real' form she had. But until he saw Grant's Leaping Lady, or Grant saw his Lady Ghost there was no way to tell in the end.

"Well.. what do you think of this, mate?" Grant asked, as they stepped into a darken passage, bats sleeping peacefully from the ceiling. Across from them was a large cave... How was this possible when one considered the fact that they had not gone underground? A large rock hovered in mid air, stairs having been built into it leading downwards towards them. Below that was a slow moving river, dotted with islands of carved platforms that kept a person from falling into the water. Moss on the walls provided lighting, the normal candles that they were so used to was gone.

"I think, we adapt or die," Trevor remarked as he sighed, walking towards the large rock.

"Aye, that we do old friend, that we do," Grant agreed, as he walked to the wall and began scaling it.


	6. Founders

**Let the Symphony last for eternity**

**Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix**

**Beta: None**

**A/N: … Yeah... just... yeah...**

**Sypha**

She woke among cold grass, wet with the chill of the night warmed by her living body at the foot of a base to pedestal where a statue would be in place. About her were the shattered bits of stone, eerily reminding her of her tenure as the petrified prisoner of the castle of Dracula. Below her was the inlaid pebbles of a pathway that wove through a garden. About her was the towering turrets and walls of an aged and crumbling castle. With a foreboding lone tower risen high above everything else and a single broken staircase leading to it.

She wondered for a moment, if it had all been a nightmare of the worst kind. That she had only dreamed of Dracula's defeat and that for some errant reason, she was now free from her stone state. The only thing that gave her hope to believe that she hadn't dreamed of her rescue came in the form of her wedding ring. But even that could have been...

In the distance was... was that Trevor? Before she could find her voice, she watched him walk through a door off in the far distance. She stumbled to her feet, her robes tripping her some, as the weight of a false morning's dew dragged her robes down. What it all a dream? The staircase that led to Dracula had fallen into disrepair, so he had to have been defeated. But if that was the case, why was she down on the ground far below? Why was there stone pieces scattered on the ground around her?

During her time as a statue, she thought that she had handled it pretty well. She spent the months locked in stone, unable to see the world around her. But she felt that she had retained her sanity despite what she was trapped as. Or had she? Where was the Cyclops that had turned her into stone if she just woke up? She tried to ground herself magically, but the ground was ever tainted with the darkness of the Castle, the air itself was terribly hot. How was this possible? The air about her resented her presence, the negativity of this castle was worse then when she went through it before.

The moon above was a sickly yellow, the windows lining the walls seemed to look down on her with distaste. The grass along the paved stone actively moved 'away' from where she approached, as though they feared her even thinking of touching them. The air was oddly humid considering the time of year, while in the distance a lone figure seemed to be working in the garden.

She thought for a bit that perhaps she could go and inquire about what was going on. But then decided against it, she knew she had seen Trevor and decided it was safer to ask another human. Much safer then asking a possible monster, and forget if the Cyclops returned and found her. So she turned her steps towards the door she had seen Trevor take, hoping and refusing to believe that she had dreamed up her rescue. No, she had been rescued by Trevor and this was just someone else' evil plot. The night sky above was clear, the stars above shining a cold light down upon the garden, yet as she walked by a large ornate water fountain clear water turned blood red. Even the air from the water shifted from the clear lack of smell to the iron rich stench of blood.

She had to reach Trevor, her steps increasing in speed as she rushed to the door she saw him take. The elements felt wrong, every one she got near became corrupted, even before that didn't happen, as though the whole castle was ignoring her. A glance behind her encouraged her steps even more. As a series of statues began to mold their way out of the ground, all of them looking like her. All of them looked to be forming dismemberment, missing heads or limbs.

The blood soaked stone path that was laid out before as she near tore open the door reinforced that she was in a dangerous place. Against the walls were images of previous human warriors, gladiators of sorts posing, while distant monsters could be seen. Yet despite her standing right there, no monster made a move towards her. It wasn't like the last time where monsters flocked to harm her. Now she felt like she was being shunned, being shunned by monsters shouldn't have felt so disconcerting. But it did, when monsters turned their backs on her intentionally, it bothered her. The pulse of the castle that should have reflected the evil of the master was almost completely gone.

Instead there was a cold that seemed to radiate off the very stones around her. Clutching her robes closer to her body, she made her way along the path looking for another door. Trevor had to be around here right? She thought about calling out to him, hoping to draw his attention. Yet the chill froze the words from her throat, unable to even call out to see if he was still in ear shot. When finally she heard the faint sounds of someone talking in the distance it gave her more encouragement then she wanted to admit to.

**Leon**

Leon didn't know what to make of this castle he was in. Turning his head with the intention to ask Jonathan more about this very odd castle, only found himself alone. The brown stone walls with their blood red stains held a foreboding feeling for the new hunter. They had taken the same door that he had used to enter the hallway where he met Jonathan. So why wasn't he in the same hallway he was in before? Perhaps the 'action' wasn't in the paintings or in the hallways, but rather the doorways themselves?

But regardless, he stood there trying to formulate a rational understanding of what had happened. Taking one door, only to be lead to a hallway, and he still believed it would be impossible for a castle to be just one long hallway. Only to take the same door and suddenly be thrust into a completely different location then the first time. But he hadn't been alone, so was the door a ticket to a new location for only one person? In that case, where was Jonathan and was he ok? But the stranger seemed rather self assured regarding the castle, so perhaps he could handle it.

But that left the question of if Leon himself could handle this odd castle. He handled Walter's castle and if this was Mathias' own home then he would handle it as well. Leon's thoughts turned back to the images he saw in that one hallway. He wondered if the paintings were the longing of what Mathias had dreamed for his own future. At least until the illness that took his wife away hit, leaving him a widow. But Leon couldn't focus on that at the moment, as he made his way down the passages aimless when an owl shot past him. He watched the large barn owl carry away a scuttling rat and dove back down through a shaft through the ground.

Which brought back the memory of the maids, they spoke with him when he asked. Perhaps there was someone down there that would be willing to provide him with information. With that he began his journey down into the shaft, where faint creaking sounds could be heard. Was it armor of a soldier? He would like to know who the 'Lady of the Castle' was, why the paintings showed the images they did. So perhaps now he would inquire about such things.

When he finally touched ground he heard the faintest sounds of movement, the creak of leather and armor. Down a little ways from him, a fully armored knight sat, the barn owl resting upon one gauntlet. The style of armor was different then the ones Leon knew, but all the same this stranger bore the air of a Knight. It was a calculated risk, approaching what was probably a monster and expecting either an answer or even the truth. But he had nothing to go on, save this one lone Owl Knight.

"Pardon me, Sir Knight? If I may have but a moment of your time, to inquire about something...?" He approached with confidence, waiting to see the response from the Knight before him.

The owl turned its' head to look at Leon as an empty helmet turned to face him. But Leon kept himself relaxed, the whip at his hip was ready, all he needed was a sign that he was being threatened. But the Knight's answer was to lift up its hand and stick it into the open hole of the mask, showing there was no head inside.

"You have no voice to speak with?" Leon hazard, which the Knight answered with an unearthly moan. Not so much the moan of a man in pain, as the moan of wind over pipes, the low soulful sound of the elements outside. The knight nodded slightly, merely armor filled with something that animated it, though if it was a solid body or...

But that left Leon with a problem, since it reduced him down to just 'yes' or 'no' questions. "Ah, I see, well then, at the very least..."

"Oh! I was right!" A woman's voice from above him startled him into looking up, the Owl Knight turning to walk off deeper into the hallway. "Are you human?"

"Yes, are you?" He called out in answer, before opting to jump his way up the platforms that jutted out of the walls.

"Of course!" The voice sounded a touch offended as he got higher up, "Identify yourself, before you come any closer!" The voice ordered.

"My name is Leon Belmont," he replied, stopping on the platform he was on, respecting the lady's wishes. Even now he was unable to fully break away from his old role as a knight. Above him was a long blond haired woman, dressed in white robes and a wary look on her face.

"'Belmont' you say? I know of no one by that name in my family," she replied, her tone dry and her expression exacting.

"Your family?" Leon finished his journey up to the top of the shaft, placing himself on the other side of where the woman was.

"Yes, I am a member of the Belmont clan through marriage. My name is Sophia Belmont, though I am more widely known as Sypha Vernandes," she spoke with pride, though Leon knew no one by either name.

"Very well, then I shall say it is an honor to meet so brave a lady," he replied, politely granting her a bow.

"How is it that you came across that whip?" Sypha asked, her tone was positively chilly.

"Rinaldo gave it to me," Leon answered simply, unsure of what brought about this interrogation, then again if she was claiming to be a member of his family through marriage...

"I know of no one by such a name," she retorted, but he could see her concern in the way her body stiffened. Frightened, the confidence she had before was slipping away, though she fought to hide the proof.

"That is all well and fine, as I also know of no one by your name. Though I wonder, if you have seen an... as he put it, 'un-regular', vampire around here?" Leon replied, calm and confident despite being in a strange new place with more information then he knew what to do with.

She balked at the question, taking her eyes off him finally to look about the castle walls. "What is considered 'un-regular'? I've hunted vampires before, but..."

"Something is amiss?" Leon asked, his head tilted a bit to the side, trying to encourage the woman to talk more.

"This castle... perhaps this is not the castle I thought it to be..." She stood there wondering if perhaps she had the wrong person. Sophia was still new to the Belmont Clan, was it possible that he had some family somewhere else, and that they too had a magical whip? If so, then she really shouldn't have been so cold to this person. "You said you were a Belmont correct? Forgive me, I have not yet had a chance to meet all the other members of my husband's family yet. I erred in judgment to treat you so, but I hope you can understand my dilemma." She gestured around herself as she began explaining her situation.

**The present**

"That indeed sounds very odd... I have gained no such sensation since my arrival," indeed the castle seemed almost welcoming. Then again, Leon didn't miss the look of surprise on Jonathan's face when he actually attempted to converse with a monster. But when compared to waking up in a garden that slowly begins making statues of you in various forms of dismemberment? Waking up to a flute and a violin playing peacefully was positively wonderful.

"Maybe... just maybe... and forgive me for implying this... but maybe the Castle doesn't like you?"

She frowned in answer, some would probably consider such a reply an insult, but if this was the castle of Dracula, then it was a possibility unto itself. But if it wasn't, then what was with the cold demeanor?

"Humph, assuming the castle has a personality of its own..." That wasn't possible was it?

Leon merely jumped over the shaft, joining Sypha on the other side, before tilting his head towards the path she had just come by. "I say that we find a way out of here, you took a door correct?"

Leon went about explaining his own situation, and his encounter with Jonathan in the entry hall, all the things that also baffled Sypha.

"It makes no sense, that the doors would become dimensional gateways... but it sounds like that is what it has done. I wish Alucard was here, he would know the best," Sypha finally admitted, missing her staff as she walked.

"Alucard?" Leon asked, such a strange name. He turned to look at the woman beside him, as she pulled her hood up to hide her face again.

"Yes, he is the son of Dracula, but unlike that black hearted monster he is a good man, he fought along side us against his father." Sypha recalled quietly as Leon jumped down to a lower platform.

'They turned his son against him?' Leon said nothing more on the matter, instead shifting his focus onto the one capable of possibly helping them. "Do you think he could still be here?"

"No, when we departed the castle, we went our separate ways, some more separate then others. But he knows the Dark Arts almost as well as his father, his talents would be useful here," she explained, professional in tone.

But it never sat right with Leon to force family to fight family, especially not after what he had heard about Rinaldo's daughter. Yet, if the paintings of the young man with the long blond hair was that of this Alucard person. Then the odds that he was stolen were slight and the favor was stronger that Dracula was indeed the birth father of this person. Then again, Leon knew little of Vampire lore, and was unsure if vampires could procreate the same way as humans did.

Sypha was planning on leaping down, but from below she could see Leon lift up a gauntlet covered hand, stilling her actions. While he moved ahead towards slowly gathering mist, as he watched, it swirled slowly into being. Taking the shape of a woman, a woman he recognized and long knew. If not from the portraits in that one hallway, then most certainly because this was the lady wife of Mathias. Had the dear lady been denied heaven's love because of her husbands' actions?

"Lady Elizabetha?" He brought his arm to cross his stomach, bowing before her, ghost or what not.

"It's been a long time, Sir Belmont. Were I to have time, I would so enjoy talking to you once more. But time is what I lack, so take this warning to heart. Please refrain from going any further in this passage..." she both greeted and warned before a hot wind from the path behind her blew away the mist she was made of. There was no point in calling out for her to wait. The mist was already gone blown away by a heated wind that seethed with evil. She sought to warn him, were it somehow through Mathias' own actions that halted her words? Or perhaps this was the vampire that may have taken up residence. Jonathan seemed to believe another vampire could have taken over, that it had been done before.

Leon sincerely doubted that Mathias would treat his lady wife so poorly as to brush her off like that. It seemed that this 'was' where Mathias had come to hide himself away in. But if that was the case, then it seemed to mean another vampire did indeed take over. Perhaps the threat was only in this one passage? Though normally Leon would have pressed forward, he didn't feel he should abandon Sypha to her own devices.

While she stood above watching as a hot wind tore through the passage Leon had just entered. The heat of hate and pure evil rose up like a vile serpent and drove her back from the edge, somehow her own power over the elements seemed so petty compared to this hate. If this was Dracula's own hate she could only wonder how it could have grown so strong.

"Leon? Are you alright down there?" She peered down anxiously, her vivid blue eyes reflecting her worry as she peered down. She didn't want to tell Trevor that his family member was dead.

"I am well m'lady," he called out, before leaping out to the platform below her. She couldn't help, but, admire his skill, though he wasn't a magician he could use some magical skills. Coiling power for that double jump skill for example. He had some skill, though so far with no monsters there was no way to tell if he was a proficient fighter. "However, I think we should take another path for now."

She gave him an odd look from under her hood, but she didn't argue, after what she just experienced, she felt safer getting a better grip on the Castle. Before she faced something that could be superior to her own skills.


	7. When Harry Met Sally

Let the Symphony last for Eternity

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

She stormed down the hallways of the Castle with an expression carefully schooled into apathy. But anyone with a bit of sense scuttled out of her way as quickly as they could as she approached, no one could miss that aura of anger that radiated off her in waves. Her long heavily decorated rose pink dress even seemed to fear her anger. The bottom of the dress curled itself in whatever direction it needed to be in to avoid making her trip.

The Castle felt off, split asunder into two parts, yet it still felt off in a way that had worked its way under her skin. Even if the Castle was split into two parts, there should have been a hint of chaos within the flow of its essence. The remaining aspect of darkness should have been more pronounced, only clearly it wasn't. But it was the Castle of Dracula, and despite how she may have felt about it she wasn't one to force her will over it. Not when there was a chance of enraging Count Dracula himself, which was why she was here.

It was an affront to her, not just the lack of chaos or darkness in the Castle, or even the feeling that Dracula was not within its walls. No, it was the affront of having Vampires having turned traitor! Vampires in the Castle seeking to undermine the authority of Count Dracula and instate themselves as the new rulers of the Children of the Night. It was absurd! An affront if ever she had heard one, even their arguments!

The only reason Dracula had lost his wars through out the ages was simply because Vampires were just too cowardly. Just the over sexed Succubus were willing to join his cause, while the weak and useless monsters rallied to him. It was a disgrace if there ever was one, and that there were vampires willing to betray Dracula rather then aid him was all the more bothersome to her. There were humans in the Castle as well, one only a human in name, his body having died off he was just a spirit now. But he had done the remarkable, breaking the spirit of a Belmont and twisting the hunter to the cause of serving Dracula! That and a Devil Forgemaster promised a strong aid for Dracula against these traitors.

But even so, the fact that she had to entrust the aid of 'humans' annoyed her terribly. Even if that human captured a Belmont and broke him, the fact remained that a human was capable of doing such an act! More over, that Belmont was calling 'himself' the Lord of the Castle, and who knew what went on in the mind of the mad forgemaster. Still, it was a frustrating situation to be caught within, as she was being asked to betray her fellow vampires and side with the humans or simply slaughter the humans.

She finally paused in her agitated stride, and fought to gain some level of self control once more. She would need to find some way to gain some control over the situation, she couldn't trust the other Vampires, as they had turned traitor. Nor could she trust the humans, since their inner darkness would eventually make them turn traitor as well. What human wouldn't? Greed was a natural foundation in the human soul, so they were clearly unfit to have any right to the castle. Eventually they would be no better then the traitorous vampires. She needed to secure a power base of her own within the Castle, which meant finding something to use. The Vampires were looking for Dracula so they could restrict him to one room some how. The humans had their Belmont staking out the Master Chambers, which left her with what?

When she opened the door and stepped through it she found herself at the Outer Wall, which shouldn't have been where she ended up. As she paused, once again, to think on it, she realized that the whole layout of the castle seemed a little... off.

Vampires had a near animalistic sense of direction, they always knew which direction was which. Provided they weren't in a state of frenzy, which was why she was standing there trying to regain her composure. Because her sense of direction had suddenly been yanked into a totally different direction. From facing west to completely facing east? No, there was something decidedly wrong with the castle and she needed to figure out what it was.

Across from her was a wall, along with the fresh clean air of the night covered forest outside the castle. The outer wall of the castle extended over the lake that the castle had returned to. But there was the scent of a living human somewhere, another human seeking to protect Dracula? Or perhaps some human so dark that even the traitors found them of use? Normally she would linger, savor the fact that there was a human in the castle that she could hunt. But not tonight, she needed to find out who this person was.

\\\\Juste\\\\\

In the distance, he could occasionally hear the lone calls of an owl, or the flapping of wings from various bats as they woke up to go hunting. There were times when the wind would blow hard enough to allow him to hear the creaking of a heavy weight up. Upon investigation, he discovered a rotting corpse hanging from a ragged whip outside the outer wall. Clad in leather reminiscent of his ancestors armor, he could only assume it to be a sick twisted joke.

That aside, he sat by the gated elevator regretting his lack of materials. Though he was trained in the arcane arts, he needed more equipment then say, his ancestor Sophia. Equipment he wasn't in the process of carrying when he was suddenly brought to this castle. A castle that shouldn't have been standing, a situation that seemed completely insane. He had awoken in a draft and drab room hanging precariously over the lake yet it seemed he had gone nowhere. Still so close to where he began, and trapped waiting for the sting in his wrist to fade.

But what if the switch to activate this gate was somewhere else in the area? That fit the normality of the structure to a degree. If this 'was' the castle, not that he was even sure. The castle lacked the normal feeling that he had gotten during his trip through before. Accumulating in the presence of his ancestor, Trevor. He wanted to say that it was an apparition, a monster of some sort, yet the sense he got. That little mystical bit of sensory that he inherited from Sophia told him that this was a living man.

There was one other sound in this place far in the distance, with a rolling tide of dark energy that cascaded down the numerous stairs like an oily water. It told him to be prepared, a vampire was on the loose. But there was still the probability that it would be a vampire like all the other monsters in the castle. Disinterested in his presence, ignoring him like all the other monsters had, if he was lucky. No sound came from above where the power radiated from.

He turned his attention back to the gate that kept him separated from his whip, testing the metal and wondering if his fire spells were safe to cast. Or would they warp the metal, damaging it and making it harder if not impossible to reach his whip. Juste had already healed his wrist using his spells, now he grabbed the summoning tome and a vial of holy water. So far it was the only combo he could think of that had little chance of harming the metal of the cage. Yet at the same time was able to harm whoever came down there, if they were a threat.

The vampire's arrival was without visible fanfare, nothing but the sensation of her own dark powers told him to look up. Visually she wore layers upon layers of pinks, her hair had a red hue, the pinks softened the appearance. The dress bore heavily from the design of nature's rose, soft petaled and delicate. Her face was clear of blemishes and the color of fresh milk, at least that was what a non vampire hunter might have seen.

Yet for someone who had the blood of Vampire Hunters bound with the blood of witches, that appearance wasn't the only thing Juste saw. He saw the rolling tide of her powers, the aura of sensuality, and the sensation that told him he stood before a vampire.

"And what have we here? Another Vampire Hunter? As though the other one wasn't enough?" She mulled over aloud, acid in her voice as she stared down at him. Chocolate brown eyes holding a hint of red in their depths while she studied him.

He didn't reply at first, instead opting to merely observe her. Then broke his silence with a, "You're the first being here that's even acknowledged my presence."

"But you are not the first Vamnpire Hunter that I have found that serves a traitor," she retorted sharply. Watching him start slightly in response to that, then again the idea of a vampire hunter turning traitor was probably not something he would expect. "A wrenched Belmont no less..."

Juste stayed silent, watching her every movement in case she tried something. The Belmonts, as a rule, didn't advertise Alucard's assistance when the Dhampire aided his ancestor. When asked, they simply said a vampire turned traitor in an effort to protect Alucard from enemies. So was this vampire talking about Alucard's link to the Belmont Clan? Then again she 'was' implying more then one vampire...

"But if you're thinking of battling the lord of this castle in an attempt to gain fame, I'll warn you now. It will not do you any good, as that accursed Belmont is presiding as lord," she scoffed as she glided closer.

She didn't know he was a Belmont given what she said, but what did she mean by a Belmont being lord of the castle? He wanted to say that it was a lie, slay the vampire and be done with it, rather then listen to her attempt to slander his family name. It couldn't have been Trevor, despite the shock of the meeting, Juste had sensed no malicious intent in the man. Yet the castle seemed passive, the evil that he had come to know was either gone or sedated.

Something was happening inside the castle, this vampire spoke disdainfully of the Belmont in control. So if the Belmont was actually sealing the castle, she could be offended that it had been taken over by a vampire hunter. But she said that this vampire hunter served traitors. From all accounts that he knew, Alucard had no desire to take over the castle, so it wouldn't make sense for him to do so. Even if it was done by proxy through a Belmont.

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

But even an experienced hunter like Juste could not control every single function of his existence. The surprise that he felt from the news was registered in the vampire as she continue her walk down the stairs. He didn't come here knowing what was going on, much like herself possibly, he had been brought here without his knowledge. But the humans and the other Belmont had been here the whole time from what she had been told.

But this had a use, the humans had proven that even the lofty Belmonts could be broken in, made useful. Perhaps she, too, could gain the assistance of a Belmont.


	8. This isn't Charlies Angels

Let the Symphony Last for Eternity

Written By Lady Lunar Phoenix

Beta: No one

A/N: I move out and just got the net hooked up. Updates will be resuming!

"This... is simply impossible," was all Estella could really say.

Charlotte was resting against her, getting her strength back from her grueling experience. Magic could do only so much, and it would still take time before she could cast another strong spell. But even so, it was clear in the way Estella looked about the dark passage they were in that something was wrong. Her sister and Maria were missing, Charlotte was still with her, but the hallway they stood in was the same exact hallway that Estella herself traveled through.

"The doors, they've become warps," Charlotte noted from where she stood. The tired honey blond lifted up her head from where it had been resting against Estella's shoulder. She looked about the cavern they were in, the occasional flames that lit the gloom. What would they do now? Whatever it was, she couldn't just stay latched on to Estella, any sign of weakness had to be avoided. This was still the castle of Count Dracula, the cursed castle with monsters, even if said monsters were acting a bit abnormal.

"If that is the case then there is no telling where my sister and Maria are," Estella noted, as she turned back to the door they just passed out of. But even as they stood there, side by side and pondering over the current situation, the door opened again. But while the new person was a woman, she was unlike either the quiet Loretta or the golden tressed Maria.

The woman was pale, long of limbs with a lifeless quality to whole being. Her eyes held nothing, cold and lifeless even the dead held signs in their eyes of an emotion. Her clothes were a dark blue gown with slits that rose up to her hip bone, and a chest plate of russet brown and brass colored trim. The boots looked to be made with the same designs as the chest plate, reaching just above the knees.

The gown was sleeveless, but came with arm sheaths of the same material as the dress with a gold trim. With long black hair that spilled down her back haloed by the lights of a fire from beyond, reflected off of numerous gears. The Clock Tower.

While the door slammed shut behind this newcomer, said woman didn't react at all with surprise. Instead she seemed to be studying the pair with a cool glance, yet never saying a word. Odd.

"Hello?" Charlotte spoke first, unsure if the woman could hear to begin with or if she was even alive.

"Who are you." Not a question, rather a statement. As though they were expected to fill out the answer like one filled out a form. The answer was not important to this person rather required information. Or perhaps this person didn't know any other way to make small talk. Regardless...

"I am Estella LeCarde, and this is Charlotte Aulin," Estella took lead with that one, gesturing with a flick of the wrist towards Charlotte. "Who might you be?"

"My name is 'Shanoa', are you better informed of the situation here? I have been traveling and been unable to make any clear connection to this place's structure."

Both Estella and Charlotte had to blink at that statement, there was clearly something wrong with this woman. Her tone and outward personality was clearly lacking any living warmth to it. She wasn't a monster, they both could tell that right off the bat, yet she had less personality then some of them. But what they saw behind her was just as disconcerting.

"I think it may have something to do with the doors of the castle," Charlotte theorized as she stood there. The two women with her turning to give her their full attention. "I'm not sure yet, I'd have to do some tests. The first being," with that she turned her attention to Shanoa and asked, "how did you get in the castle?"

"I awoke in what looked to be a church, until I saw the paintings with skeletal angels as the theme."

"I awoke in a room full of the aged bones of the dead, my sister awoke in a room near mine," Estella added, turning her head towards her current companion.

"The stone walls around us is very familiar to the stone walls around me when I woke up. So by chance this maybe a spot in the same tunnel. Regardless we've been brought back to the same part of the grounds as when we left."

Estella and Shanoa both turned their own attention back to the door that Shanoa had just stepped out of. "We weren't in physical contact with Loretta and Maria when we stepped through the door. Now who knows where they are, and we're here, not only that, but you've arrived here as well. But that aside, why would a clock tower be connected to an underground location?" Charlotte theorized aloud.

"You're suggesting that this whole structure is randomly teleporting people into its structure, and using the doors themselves as gateways to other locations in the same main structure?" Estella inquired, a frown forming on her lips. If that was the case they were in a great deal more trouble then she first estimated.

"Thus this 'is' the castle of Dracula then. His powers seem to have become even more devious," Shanoa added, casting a glance around the area.

But Charlotte only shook her head, "we think this 'is' the castle of Dracula. However; Maria said she had just been in the clock tower, and now you've stepped through a door that has clearly been open to the clock tower."

"You took another door and woke up here, yet you met someone who was just in the clock tower and ended up meeting up with you when the door they took brought them here, correct?" Shanoa asked, seeking clarification because the castle was officially loopy. When the girls nodded their heads, she turned her back to them, exposing a large open space uncovered of armor or cloth. As well as a large ornate circle on her flesh. Though it was mostly visible in the brief moment when she turned around to face the door she had just stepped out of. "Then in that case this door shall either return us to the Clock tower or somewhere else."

With that Shanoa reached out, grabbing the doorknob and pulling it open, even amid cries of 'wait' and the sensation of two hands falling on either of her shoulders.

\\\ Clock tower \\\

Only to find herself, with Charlotte and Estella in tow, back in the clock tower. It was enough to give anyone pause, standing beneath and beside gears both big and small. Surrounded by machines that worked to keep time measured for those around it. Like the beat of a heart, there was a steady sound of clicks and whirls sounds so loud that it cause the clock tower not to be around any normal living area. But if that were the case, why couldn't she hear the sound of the clock tower on the other side of the door?

If this was in fact a normal door, leading to and from the same location, how could she not hear the sounds of a room she had just been in? She knew what the clock tower sounded like, so why the lack of sound on the other side of a single door?

Charlotte had bumped into Shanoa with less grace then Estella, but righted herself fair quick enough. Looking around the new room, it was obvious that this was, in fact, the clock tower. A rather neat looking one, with the occasional shows of polish that someone must have applied to in an effort to make the place presentable. After all the Master was returning right? Couldn't afford to make the place look ill taken care of. Above them there was a roosting harpy, the only other sign of life currently inside the tower aside from themselves.

While Estella had landed with the grace of a woman who had cheated, thus floated, into the room. All that mattered to her was that Loretta was not in this room either, but outside of the warp like effect of arrive into this room... It seemed as though their theory was incorrect, but that was a type of reassurance unto itself. At least logic 'did' exist inside the castle still. So long as some logic existed then hopefully her sister would be safe, perhaps she was with Maria. While Estella wasn't exactly the most knowledgeable about the lore for the Belmont Clan, she did know of Maria. Just enough to know the woman was a nature based vampire hunter, using animals and mythical beasts for her aid.

But suddenly Shanoa seemed to have decided on a course of action for herself, turning abruptly she reached for the door they had just exited out of, with both Charlotte and Estella reaching out to stop her, yet again.

\\\ Royal Chapel \\\

"Well... that was kinda expected, but not really."

In that instant when they had gotten a hold of Shanoa, she had opened the door again, ripping them away from the clock tower, into here. Which proved to be a very large room, they were at what proved to be a set of stairs, that led downward. But resting on those stairs was a very large spike ball, and from what they could see, a few bone pillars to boot.

"Perhaps it's just that the door in question leads out to different areas," Charlotte suggested, her expression thoughtful.

The big difference in the Royal Chapel was a difference normally found in one other location, which was the Master Chambers itself. That difference was neatness itself, while a fine level of dust, dried blood, or the errant bone or strip of cloth could be found just about anywhere else. It was in these two locations themselves, that always maintained a neatness to them. The carpets were clearly cleaned regularly, little to no dust could be found along any surface. While it may have been strange for Dracula to have a place of holy worship in his home, what ever the reason must have been dear to him. Then again he 'did' have a human wife, if he loved a human 'that' much, perhaps he thought to entertain her by putting the chapel in the castle?

"Perhaps we are not the only ones in the castle. Despite the random possibility given by the very nature of the doors, there must be others lost in here as well," Shanoa pointed out, before promptly making for the steep stairway leading downward.

"Wait! Shanoa where are you going?" Charlotte asked, having regained enough strength to keep up with the odd lady.

"There were others that you were with, we should make haste in finding them. When one can not trust a door to lead to the proper location, there is no telling what the castle would have done with them," the stranger remarked. But amid her graceful leaps her hair floated among the air currents enough to show the remaining pair a circle of arcane marks on her upper back. Symbols that the girls could easily recognize as marks of arcane power, but not what they meant. But Shanoa had a point, what if a door just decided to drop someone in the middle of that room of spikes? What if the monsters suddenly turned violent on a lone traveler? That they had not been dangerous because the girls had been in a group? But then again Shanoa seemed to be alone and had been unbothered by the monsters.

\\\Shanoa\\\

When she opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was the ceiling above her, but a ceiling she didn't recognize. She had fallen asleep in an inn on her travels, so how did she end up here? Like the grand churches she had heard about, the ceiling depicted scenes of heaven, with angels flying into eternity. Stars and clouds held a gray tint to lessen their natural beauty, the sky around it was soft tones of royal blue.

Yet Shanoa missed all that sense of beauty, since beauty was defined by memories of what gave a sense of safety, or danger. All she understood was that she wasn't where she was when she went to sleep. That alone indicated danger, for which she got up from the ground and gave the surrounding area a more thorough search. Revealing paintings that showed winged skeletons and humans being killed, while the ceiling might have been heavenly, the walls most certainly were 'not'. She wandered the hallways alone, until she came upon a door one that looked simple enough. There were no monsters nor evil creatures around, the building felt so empty, soulless in fact...


	9. You remind me of the babe

Let the Symphony last for Eternity

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

So a trio of vampire hunting women were walking in the Castle of Dracula. It felt like the set up to a very bad joke, yet it was where the girls found themselves when it occurred to them to look out a window. Of course Charlotte and Stella had been underground the whole time, while Shanoa never thought to look out of the castle and why would they? The castle had been making sense up until the point when they realized that the doors were not functioning like they should have.

But the truth wasn't so simple, the castle wasn't one great big hallway, there were twists and turns all over the place. So perhaps if they could figure out where they were 'now', if it happened again they could just look out the window. Granted it wasn't the perfect plan, but it was better then just roaming around a castle ruled by a vampire without a clue. Stella could certainly attest to that.

"So... basically, Richter ended up missing and your church was trying to find a way to defeat Dracula 'without' a Belmont?" Charlotte asked, her tone of voice the one of a semi strict historian learning a new fact. "Odd that I've never heard of it."

"That's what I was taught, but the truth was that my order, and it wasn't really a church in the end, was founded to bring him back. My teacher wanted to resurrect Dracula and was going to use me as the sacrifice." Shanoa explained, perhaps her 'emotionless' tone was less that she had no emotions and more that she was still in a type of shock?

The trio had been swapping stories, about how their fates seemed intertwined with the Castle they currently were in. For which Charlotte eventually became the master story teller, as Stella wasn't versed in the direct blood line. While Shanoa was never taught anything beyond the Belmont name, anything about their history was omitted due to indifference. Yet after a while, Stella began to chuckle softly to herself bringing Charlotte to a pause. "Stella?"

"It is nothing. Just that we've met a woman from the time of Richter Belmont, and one from after he and the clan went underground. Yet we do not seem to care at all about that fact," Stella noted aloud, causing the other two young women with her to actually pause as well.

It was true after all, they were from different times, meeting and chatting with women from other times as though nothing strange was going on.

"The downside of hunting, we're all staying on the topic of hunting vampires, so there's nothing to really make us stick out."

"Man, we need to get more out of life," Charlotte noted with a sigh as they entered a large open space in the chapel. It was large and airy with a wooden series of stairs against both walls spiraling upwards to doors set above. On the left was a long vast hallway lined with large stain glass windows on either side of the room. Beyond that was probably the church alter and set up proper, allowing for whoever to go and receive blessings from a man of the cloth. Though what reason would Dracula have for allowing such a thing? "I wonder what type of woman Dracula's wife was, to bring all this into the castle."

"Does it matter?" Shanoa asked, turning away from the vast hall to face the young caster.

"I suppose not. But... it exists so at some time or another, Dracula 'had' to be more then just the angry vampire lord we've dealt with. It wouldn't make sense any other way..." Charlotte replied, her voice becoming inner directed as though she was thinking more and disconnecting herself from her current company.

"Regardless of the type of woman his bride was, she is long since dead and of no help for us. Further more the odds of her dying a peaceful death are non-existent," Stella pointed out, with Shanoa nodding.

"Why would a vampire who has lived a peaceful life suddenly change? No, something must have created an upheaval in his life to make such a sharp transition from this," Shanoa gestured around to the far distant pews and alters to letting her hand drop. "To where we stand now."

"I just hope Jonathan isn't here, I know him. He'll just be reckless and if he uses Vampire Killer," Charlotte shook her head, leaving Stella to explain to Shanoa.

"Anyone other then a Belmont attempting to use the Vampire Killer must exchange their own life force with the whip for it to function. That is to say, to wield the whip, even with the blessing of the Belmont Clan, the whip demands the sacrifice of the wielder's life force."

Shanoa blinked in surprise as she heard that, looking between the pair for further clarification. The history of the whip and the clan were both rather guarded, the only reason anyone outside of the clans knew that the whip was an important part of the hunt, was that it was always there. Each Belmont to face Dracula was only armed with the whip when they set out. Saying it was a family heirloom was ridiculous, one simply did not go to face the Lord of Evil with a family heirloom unless it could be of use. The fate of the world was above pageantry of what one wore.

The group moved among the pews, noting the lack of dust, though there was no doubt that Dracula had been absent from these seats in centuries, if he ever entered. Gazing at the windows encouraged Charlotte into turning into an owl and checking them for a view outside.

"Does she require a spell book for 'all' her magic casting?"

Stella cast a glance at Shanoa before giving a slight nod, "her family is akin to the Morris clan, distant relatives of Sypha's blood line. As such all require a focus for their spell casting."

"She strikes me as extremely knowledgeable of the clans and castle. Do you think she knows of any similar situations such as this?" Shanoa inquired, as the downy soft owl landed on the windowsill.

"If she did, she would have already spoken of them, at great length," Stella explained, emphasizing the last few words. "So odd that the castle would be this... contained..."

"It's unnatural to be certain, for even if some of the monsters have been assigned normal human duties, those that haven't..." Shanoa shook her head. The Harpies and Medusa Heads came to mind.

"I saw the inner gardens, kinda creepy though from what I could see," Charlotte reported as she returned to her true form.

"Well, this 'is' the Castle of Dracula," Stella noted aloud, but Charlotte merely stuck her tongue out at the LeCarde before replying.

"No, there were written records on how Sypha dressed when she aided Trevor Belmont. Right now in the garden, there were all these statues starting to mold into existence from the ground it seemed. They looked like the description of Sypha, but they were broken, like someone took a mace to them."

"Just her? I could understand the trio, but not just her," Stella replied, her expression puzzled while Shanoa stood there trying to recall if she ever heard of a 'Sypha'. "For that matter, are you even sure? Sypha was described as always wearing a long hooded cloak to pass off as a man."

"Who 'is' this woman you mention? Her name sounds familiar but..." Shanoa looked between the pair, patiently waiting for an explanation.

"Oh, Sypha was the magic user of the original three who helped Trevor defeat Dracula in 1479," Charlotte elaborated for the glyph master.

"The magic user was a woman? Then who was the pirate and who was the third person who aided them? I can no longer trust my sources of information," Shanoa explained, looking between the two. Barlowe had sought the return of Dracula, so how could Shanoa trust anything the man said about the history of the clans?

"Oh.. Yes, Sypha, her real name was Sophia Vernandes, but she was the magic wielder of the group. Then there was Grant DaNasty who was a pirate," Charlotte gave those names willingly, yet the third name was unspoken. Shanoa kept waiting, her expression unchanging, but Charlotte didn't seem to be forth coming about that name. "I'm sorry, but it's a family secret. All we were ever told was that he was a vampire that turned traitor against Dracula. There was no exact information regarding the vampire, probably to keep Dracula and those loyal to him from hunting the vampire down. So no one really ever asked a question about that vampire."

"I see," Shanoa replied nodding slightly accepting the answer. "The Belmont must have been an interesting man, to unite the strengths of a magic user, a pirate and a vampire with his own to defeat Dracula."

"Yeah, all the Belmonts who defeated Dracula had something special about them. Trevor for that reason, Simon for facing Dracula twice, once being crippled by a curse. Then there was Christopher who had to face his own son and free him from Dracula, Juste as he was the strongest magic user amongst the clan, and Richter for being the strongest of all of them until our time," Charlottes' tone was that of the eternal bookworm at that point.

"I do not suppose you know where the Vampire Killer came from?" Shanoa asked, her expression one of mild interest, all this new to her.

"Trevor received it during his prayers, before going to the castle, from the Poltergeist King. The story goes that he was praying before a tomb stone in a graveyard when the King appeared and gave him the whip."

Shanoa raised an eyebrow at the abrupt ending, "and then?"

"'And then' what?" Charlotte asked in return, her head tilted to the side. "That's all there was to it."

"A ghost king in a graveyard gave a whip that had properties that allowed for the defeat of the Vampire King?" Shanoa repeated, her eyes asking of the pair were playing with her.

"No, that is seriously how the story went. There is always the possibility that there was more to the story that was not written. After all we 'are' talking about a weapon that can defeat Dracula yet is whip. The nature of the weapon itself makes for a very unlikely weapon of choice after all." Stella glided away from the girls, her way of coaxing for them to continue moving. She had a sister to look after and Loretta wasn't just going to appear out of thin air while they chit chatted. Or maybe she would?

The sisters had been trying to forge a life for themselves without their father. Not that it had been an easy going trip. Losing a parent to violence was always harder then the peaceful end of old age, or even illness. Bearing witness to what they had, branded an unseen mark on both the girls, but that aside, they would overcome. They would carry on without their father and even if they were trapped in the castle of Dracula again, they would succeed. Stella refused to think that maybe right then a vampire was forcing her twin back into the life of undead servitude.

The trio moved on, tossing ideas back and forth about what could have brought about such a situation with the doors, the castle as a whole and how they even got there. It was amid this discussion of possible magical gates that they reached one of 'those' doors. There was no outward signs that the door was a gateway to 'where ever the Castle would like to dump you'. But that was what it had been doing.

But between Charlotte's nosing about, coupled with what little Stella could sense, the door seemed pretty normal. No glyphs were carved into the archway or door itself, no spell scrolls or imprints of any possible magical tampering. Not even a stupid painting showing a possible location for everyone to be dumped at, thank you very much mister artist.

"Well?" Charlotte held out her hand expectantly, waiting for the other two girls to grab her hand so they could leave.

"Perhaps we should split up by taking the door in turns, to see what happens of course," Shanoa suggested, only to get a shake of the head from both girls.

"Numbers are stronger, besides Charlotte doesn't use weapons like we do, between the three of us, we're compensating for each weakness."

Shanoa thought about Stella's words for a moment before nodding slowing, slipping her own hand into Charlotte and turning towards Stella so the LeCarde could open the door.

"One for the money, two for the show, three to get ready," Charlotte quipped.

"And four to go," Stella replied, before opening the door, revealing a large gray wall ahead of them. There was a sound of rain pouring down from the other side of the wall, as though the skies had opened up and just dropped an endless amount of rain upon the castle. There was a chilled breeze wafting about the air as well, which went completely and utterly against what they saw when they looked out through the windows. Full moon to downpour?

Stella's first step towards the door created a rather interesting sensation in the other two girls, as though they weren't walking rather floated through the door. For Stella it wasn't all that different then when she traveled with her sister. For Charlotte it was a weird sensation of her legs just dangling below her, as though she was hoisting herself up on bars and just letting the rest of her lower body... well... dangle there.

Stella never noticed, merely taking that first step over the threshold into the Outer Wall of the castle. Apprehensive that they may be separated or attacked by monsters, and just as much if they didn't. The air smelled of old stone with its moss and ivy, with that sharp tang of chill that didn't sit right with the view of the gardens below. But the stone was dry underfoot and as she passed through the door, she reveled in the first time being outside the castle. Even if they couldn't just slip through the window to escape, there was somehow, a greater relief knowing they were outside. Or at least closer to the outside then when they were underground or inside the chapel.

"Wait a moment..." Shanoa stepped past the Aulin and LeCarde, quietly searching the night air for something they couldn't see. But as she stood there, the glyph on her back began to glow. "Perhaps there is something I can pick up outside..."

The pair cast a look between each other before focusing back on Shanoa, whose form began to shift, her aura becoming demonic, and wings beginning to sprout out of her back. But before the pair could express their surprise, Shanoa spoke, "I smell fresh blood. Further down? Has to be..."

And before the pair could say another word, Shanoa released whatever she had used, and began moving off to find the source of the blood. Her steps were firm and direct, a huntress seeking prey, but her words worried them. After all Charlotte had gotten hurt falling into a pitch black room full of spikes, what if someone else got hurt?

/

Carmilla looked up at the faint sounds of footsteps and voices from above. The moment she sank her fangs into her new pet the skies above seemed to had opened up. Rain poured from the skies beating against the outer wall and splashing onto whatever little window it could strike. But despite even that hard noise, the soft sounds of footsteps couldn't be lost, lighter then men, the stiff sounds of material brushing against each other. Smirking as she lightly dabbed at the corner of her mouth as a trio of unknown women joined her. "Ahh I see that there 'are' others, be you hunters as well?"

"That... wait... isn't that Juste Belmont? What have you done to him?" The honey blond in the back called out in shock, before nearly tearing open a book and looking inside frantically.

"Ahh beautiful girls, well, I don't have time to play with you at the moment. But soon I and my new knight will be able to entertain you 'properly'," she purred in answer. She casually let her fingers trail along the newly made bite marks on the hunter's neck before lifting him up. She wasn't stupid, three hunters clearly, and that girl carried a strong air of magic about her.

Carmilla wasn't going to take the risk of them wresting her prize from her before she could use him. Instead she rushed down towards the door just below her, while the other two vampire hunting girls gave chase.

Oh how utterly, sinfully, delightful! With this Belmont she could collect other hunters and deal with the traitors!


	10. Dying to live and Living to die

Let the Symphony last for Eternity

Written by: Lady Lunar Phoenix

Beta:

A/N: Hey Look! Plot! Sorta. By the way gang I got some real honest to goodness dice. What does that mean for you guys? It means I will now be flipping a real quarter and rolling real dice to see who or what shows up per chapter! Yep! Also I'm going to start marking chapters. There are certain events that 'must' take place for the best ending to be unlocked. Let's see if the dice will let you guys read the best ending.

Ending Level: Worst ending

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

Jonathan

Jonathan decided he didn't like the catacombs, perhaps more so with the Castle acting so out of place. He had walked, jumped, and climbed his way around the place, yet all he could think about was the situation with Leon while wishing Charlotte was with him. As far as he understood each Belmont was trained to know about the Castle. So why would Leon think that the maids were harmless? Maybe Jonathan was wrong? Maybe Leon wasn't from the future after all? If that had been the case he was glad Charlotte wasn't with him, it saved him from looking stupid in front of her.

But that aside, if Leon wasn't from the future, still had Vampire Killer and didn't see the Castle for the threat that it was... could he have been from some point in the past? But if that was the case how could Leon be carrying Vampire Killer? The story went that Trevor was given Vampire Killer by the Poltergeist King before entering the Castle. So how could Leon have been a Belmont that existed before Dracula? If somehow he was then would he even be safe in the Castle? As far as Jonathan understood, a Belmont with Vampire Killer always had equaled dealings with Dracula and the Castle.

It was at that point when he was sitting in the mouth of a passage, his legs hanging over the edge, that he sighed. Perhaps there was more to the bond between the Morris and Belmont Clans that his old man never bothered to teach him. Or maybe it was one of those many, many things that he died before he got the chance. It wasn't easy reconciling the truth of his old man's actions against what the man had done. Was it ever easy though? Live a life, be shaped by that life, then trying to figure out the right path amid all the past mistakes? Would they ever have reached common ground if his dad had lived?

He envied the relationship between the LeCarde sisters and their father, Eric. The bond between hunter and children seemed more ideal to him then his distant relationship with his own father. Then again, he had could just dream up how wonderful such a relationship was since he never experienced it for himself. But he 'did' attend the funeral for Eric LeCarde and there was a certain amount of relief of being spared having to deal with the sense of loss the sisters experience. Being a man didn't make one any less susceptible to loss after all.

But that was neither here nor there. 'Here' was the castle of Dracula, by all accounts of the monsters he had seen, and somewhere one lost Belmont. Jonathan wondered if Leon was faring well, or if he had somehow got in a bad spot with a random monster that wasn't playing nice. He thought back on what Leon had described when he woke up, the hall of paintings, the music playing, so far he had not seen any room 'that' welcoming towards his presence. Each area that Jonathan had encountered since then had been no different then if he had been anywhere else. If he fell and broke his neck it was from his own stupidity and carelessness. Not because a bat decided to knock him off course mid jump or something leaping out from the darkness.

It was comforting and annoying all at the same time, since it made him feel a bit safer, yet it could have been just waiting for him to lower his guard. Thus he didn't, though on the other hand it made him think that maybe the Castle didn't consider him a threat without someone backing him up. After all he was a Morris not a Belmont, yet Leon had been a near red carpet welcome comparatively speaking. So it couldn't have something to do with being a Morris or a Belmont.

Reaching a momentary roadblock sent Jonathan up to his feet and onward until he came across the first door he found since his departure from Leon. He needed to find his fellow blond. He needed to find his fellow blond before Charlotte did and talk the poor guy's ear off. If she found herself a Belmont who didn't know what he was 'supposed to do' in the castle, well... Before she inadvertently screwed the whole time line, he felt he should find the guy.

He opened the door and resigned himself to possible ending up in some strange completely unconnected part of the Castle. For which the Castle did 'not' disappoint him.

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

Maxim Kischine

Maxim hated the Castle, for all it stood for and for the things he had done. But perhaps he hated himself the most for his mistakes. Despite Justes' lie to Lydia, Maxim couldn't stand the fact that he had brought such harm to the two people closest to him. Lydia was so delicate and gentle, her very being made both himself and Juste want to look after her. Juste was the mage of the trio, the bookworm who could always be found with a book in hand if he wasn't training to fulfill his 'destiny'. Leaving Maxim to what he enjoyed, physical raw power. He wasn't skilled in the arts that Juste was, and unlike others who probably would get jealous at the sight of Juste bending the elements to his will. Well Maxim took greater pleasure in being able to out fight an opponent.

He didn't want to think his actions were one of vanity, that he could defeat Dracula. Because he knew he couldn't, Vampire Killer was mandatory. But just destroying the pieces seemed so easy at the time, perhaps though that had been the lure of Dracula's own power.

He woke in the library of the Castle, not understanding why such a thing had happened at first. After all he had been resting under one of the trees near his own home. For one panicked moment he feared that perhaps his freedom from Dracula's control was but a dream itself. That what he had experienced was nothing more then one of Dracula's mind games.

He walked along the rows of books, the object of Juste's interests and pursuits lost to his thoughts and nagging fears. From the left and to the right all he saw were large bookshelves, so high that one had to have magic to reach the top. In the distance he could see a pale white ghost moving to a table, and for a moment he could only watch. Curious as the figure sat down with a book as though to read. These ghosts always made him curious, how essentially harmless ghosts could be in the castle. Juste never could explain how they came about, or these random candles that provided small forms of help.

But he couldn't afford to be distracted; perhaps the dream, like the candles, were a harmless attempt at helping him? Maybe he 'did' dream that horrible nightmare of being used by Dracula. If that was the case he needed to get to Dracula quickly. He turns his eyes away from the ghost in the distance and returned to the path before him. The floor was a mixture of wood and stone, the walls lined with the same type of wood as what was on the floor. A soft honey finished that aided the numerous candles that lit the rooms. Bright enough for a person to read even in the massive rooms.

Perhaps, that had been a warning from some benevolent angel on what would happen should he let his guard down? The thought of biting Lydia, of betraying Juste played through his mind. Then he shook it away, looking back towards where he had seen that one ghost. Could that ghost been a person like himself? Finding himself inside the Castle he tried to find a way out or a way to defeat Dracula amid the books? Then having died his soul continued its fruitless research? Could that become Juste if he didn't succeed?

No, he wouldn't fail, if this was a chance that was given to him by someone, he wouldn't mess this up. But then again, reality would note that he might not have the strength to deal with Dracula. Perhaps he had summoned the Dark Lord prematurely, endangering the whole world in the process. He dropped down to the floor below him, his eyes viewing only more of the same. Maids dusting the books and blobs of energy floating about, it was then that he realized the other aspect of this situation that was off. Why had nothing attacked him?

Why was he walking around a castle unassailed by Dracula's minions? He would have thought the zombies cleaning would do it or the ghosts. Yet nothing seemed to pay him the bit of attention and he couldn't fathom if he should be grateful or distressed at the lack of, of anything in the castle. A maid made its way past, a tray in hand with used cups and a teapot. It even seemed to notice him since it avoided walking into him.

"Am I missing something?"

"Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh."

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

They shushed him... Zombies... the undead, dressed like maids, rotting corpse minions of Count Dracula shushed him! So what if he spoke in the library? What minion of Dracula's 'shushed' people?! The maids turned to look at him with that disapproving, yet vacant because they were dead, stare. He waited for the attack, his hand resting on his Stellar Sword, grateful for a battle to ease his mind into something he knew. Yet they only stared.

And frowned.

And before Maxim knew it, he was sulking out of the library like a chastised child and if he wasn't insulted the feeling didn't exist! He had stalked his way towards a door in the distance and opened it with the air and dignity of the offended bumping into a blond that seemed eager to get into the room he was just departing from. Yet despite not truly marching along, Maxim found that he had someone managed to knock the stranger back into the ground.

The blond before him was calling out for someone, a 'Charlotte' as they bumped into each other. Yet Maxim had no clue as to 'why', since he hadn't seen anyone coming into the library much less a girl. Maybe one of the maids? But no, that was ridiculous.

Jonathan, for his part, had found himself standing on top of a platform and began to make another trip down to the lower floors. He found he could hear, from somewhere below, a faint series of voices. One of which he was pretty sure he recognized as Charlotte. So Jonathan quickly passed by a rather large lever, then a gate that seemed to be barring empty air, on his way below. He was wary of just calling out her name, giving a possible enemy a weapon to use against him.

But down below he caught a glance at her blue and white uniform, tattered and blood splattered as though she had been injured. Which left three possible options. Option one, she was actually a zombie dressed like Charlotte to mess with Jonathan's mind. Option two, she was the real thing only she got injured and managed to heal herself considering the fact that she was walking around. Or option three, she got a hold of some paint and was trying to teach him a lesson about carelessness. Again.

He called out to her and for the briefest of moments he saw her whip her head around and look frantically about. Just as she caught sight of him though, she had passed the threshold of the door and just like with Leon, the door slammed shut behind her. For a moment rational thought fled Jonathan, for as much as he teased Charlotte about being a kid, he 'was' fond of her. A little sister to call his own, at least that was the way he thought of her. Thus seeing her injured, even when she had healed herself was rather upsetting. Big brother was slipping up on his job.

Which was why he grabbed at the door. In the back of his mind, he already had a strong belief that he would still end up in another part of the castle. That all this glance would do is assure him that she was here and keep him looking. Because now he had to find Leon 'and' Charlotte in an oversized castle that was clearly playing with them. But instead of seeing his long time friend, or even another part of the castle all he saw was an odd vortex and a suntanned man.

Make that he walked smack 'into' said suntanned man. He didn't even get a chance to tell the stranger not to let the door shut before the stranger walked through the door. If that vortex was the portal...

"Well this sucks..."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to knock you over like that," Maxim apologized as he reached down, extending a hand to help Jonathan.

"It's ok, I saw a friend going through the door and was trying to reach her before the door closed."

Jonathan went from dusting himself off to looking up at the brunette to see a look of mild confusion firmly planted on said face. "You haven't tried any of the doors here have you? I mean since you woke up."

Maxim, for his part was on the verge of answering with an affirmative, since he had been going through doors since arriving to the castle. But the added phrase of 'since you woke up' stilled his words. Did it matter? "Ah, no I woke up in the library and there were no doors until that one I took. But for that matter I didn't see anyone passing through when I left there. Are you sure you're not mistaken?"

"Its the doors themselves," Jonathan explained with a faint apologetic smile. "When I got here I met a man named 'Leon'. But when we tried to go through the door in the room we were in, it slammed shut behind Leon. I haven't seen him since, but every time I've taken the door to go somewhere I've ended up in a place that can't possible be connected.

"Is that so?" Maxim replied, not believing what he was hearing, yet unwilling to deny the man his point of view. The stranger carried a spear with him, one that gave off a subtle yet quite dark energy, and now that he was standing up right carried himself in an easy going manner.

"Yeah, I know it sounds nuts. But the doors are acting like portals, I've gone from being above ground to underground and who knows how many different parts of above ground I've been." Jonathan shook his head and gave an almost easy smile. There was a trace of concern in his eyes that the smile couldn't quite hide.

"And this 'Charlotte'?" Maxim could see some of his old cocky casualness in this stranger, but also a touch of worry.

"She's a friend of mine. I saw her for an instant as I was coming down those steps, but she was being pulled into the door."

"I saw no one... but I suppose if it's a portal then I wouldn't, all I saw was you and heard you call out that name," Maxim confessed. "Well, I suppose I saw someone, but that was a ghost off in..." Then he stopped speaking. His focus turned inward as he recalled the zombie carrying an used tray with tea supplies. The undead had no need for food or drink and the cups didn't carry any faint scent of blood. "Perhaps I'm wrong, I saw what I took for a ghost back in the library. All white in color, but perhaps that was a person after all."

He turned to go back for the door, but even as his hand reached for it, the blond grabbed his forearm and held him still. "Don't, it won't take you back trust me on this one."

"And you are?" Maxim countered, granted he didn't know who this stranger was, but considering how the monsters in the library behaved he was willing to listen.

"Jonathan, Jonathan Morris," he held his hand out to Maxim, seeing for the first time an amused smile on the stranger's quiet, concerned face. He had never seen anyone carry such a large sword with such casual stance. Even strapped to the back, the blade would get the police on someone's case long before now. Granted he carried a spear, however, he could bind the top up and pass it off as a staff. Sure a staff got looks, but not as bad as a spear or sword.

"Maxim Kischine, you do know where you are correct? Given that spear," Maxim replied, Jonathan 'had' to be a hunter to have such an air about him. Discussing portals and such hinted strongly that this was a Dark Hunter and not a casual victim trapped in the castle.

"The Castle of Dracula, at least I think it is," Jonathan answered with surprising calm and ease.

"You 'think'?" Maxim asked, a cold fear began to grip him, after finally getting a sense of the situation he was in. Was he still dreaming?

"Yeah, last time I was here, a Vampire Artist had taken control of the castle by sealing away Dracula in the Master Chambers. Only, this place... I've seen the zombies dusting and cleaning, the monsters just sleeping or helping the maids. You'd think we were in some polite demonic castle, rather then the one with the penchant killing people for sport."

Maxim felt a chill that had nothing to do with the area they were in, his eyes traveling along the wall behind Jonathan, hoping for a window to look out of.

"Someone tried to take control of the Castle from Dracula himself?"

"Yeah," Jonathan replied with a quiet resigned voice. As though he had yet to come to terms with the fact that it had to be done.

And truth be told Jonathan hadn't completely gotten over it, but when he answered Maxim's question he found himself visually following the swordsman as the brunette took off. Jumping from the landing they were on to the staircase above. "Hey! Where are you going?"

"I need to see outside a window, I know the surroundings of Dracula's castle pretty well... I just need to see if the land marks are still there!"

"Been there, done that," Jonathan muttered, shaking his head he took off after Maxim. "Hey, Maxim, what year is it?"

"1749 and how can you not know that?" Maxim called back, lowering his voice the closer Jonathan got.

"Well now we see the problem, see for me? The year is 1945, yeah I know," he answered, both the look of surprise and the verbal question with a rueful tone.

"That... that is not possible.." Maxim shook his head in disbelief folding his arms across his chest in thought. "That would be over..."

"197 years apart between when you think it is and when 'I' think it is," he took the few remaining steps up and joined Maxim on the landing before a barred metal door. "Not only that, Leon doesn't even know about Dracula yet he's walking around with," Jonathan continued only to get interrupted by Maxim.

"Vampire Killer," the brunette's eyes had begun to scan the ground, out of impulse as he tried to think. Only to see the weapon discarded upon the ground.

"Yeah but... wait. How do you know that's Vampire Killer?" Jonathan asked, his eyes following Maxim's towards the whip. It looked to be resting on the floor of an old cage style elevator, but seeing Maxim kneeling down and reaching for it brought up a red flag to the blond. "I wouldn't touch that if I were you. It won't work..."

"No, it's Justes' Vampire Killer. It shouldn't be here abandoned like this, he needs this," Maxim explained though his arm fell short of reaching the desired goal.

"How can you tell it's his?" Jonathan asked, the whip on the floor looked no different then the one he was carrying hooked under his coat. But that aside, he walked over and began using the Alucarde Spear to drag the whip closer.

Maxim grabbed the whip, pulling it out of its prison and looked first at the whip then at the Morris who had helped him get it.

"The Ceremony links wielder to whip. Vampire Killer compensates for its wielders' weakness, a strong fighter will have a more magically charged whip, while a magic user will find it compensates for their lack of physical strength. It's a magician's tool and a warriors' strongest weapon, so goes the Belmonts."

Maxim's explanation brought a frown to Jonathans' face, one that made the swordsman wonder what the blond was thinking about. But he couldn't dally and turned his attention back towards the castle itself.

"How can the whip change itself so easily?" Jonathan asked, clearly thinking about something, but what?

"I would need proof that you're an ally of the Belmont clan, before I discuss such things," Maxim replied. His voice was firm as he spoke, his knowledge given to him in trust, he wasn't just going to tell a stranger 'everything'. But he was alarmed at the answer Jonathan gave him, not in words, but in a single gesture. The blond reached behind him, tucked under his coat at his belt, a whip was pulled out and held out for Maxim's inspection. He didn't need to touch it, he could feel Vampire Killer, awake and active. And feeding.

It made his sun kissed skin pale as he looked at it, an expression that alarmed Jonathan obviously, yet he couldn't help it. He swallowed and forced his gaze back to the blond before him. "How..."

"I come from a clan that is connected indirectly to the Belmont Clan. We're supposed to look after the whip until the time the Belmont fated to finally destroy Dracula comes for it. I know that it is the reason my dad died. Then again, you're not giving me any reassuring looks about it either." Jonathan explained, there was a cold ball that seemed to settle into his stomach. If this guy was seriously connected to the Belmont clan... if he was to accept that he was meeting people from the far distant past, a past that would have a stronger understanding of the Whip...

"The Belmont Clan has a strong amount of holy power, power that is uncomfortable to those who have no such ability. Holy or demonic, they can't tell, only that it is strong. Which is why Trevor was sent away to live in exile, they feared his unnamed strength. That's the trade off, the Whip changes, and helps the Belmont, in exchange, the Belmont allows Vampire Killer to feed on his holy powers. It's beneficial for both sides, the whip helps the Belmont defeat Dracula, then it feeds on the very thing that makes commoners fearful of the Clan." He couldn't finish the statement, the whip had already taken the man's father, and Maxim knew that it would take time, but it would take Jonathan's life as well. Death on the battlefield, or old in a bed surrounded by family was glorious. Death because, without that powerful holy power, one's life force was sucked away. Death in the prime of one's life and unable to stop it.

"Without holy power, it feeds off the life force then? Well, I haven't used it since I fought Dracula, so I should be fine right?" Jonathan tried to find an optimistic answer to the situation, but Maxim's expression didn't help him.

"Yes, you should be fine."

That was a lie.


	11. Girls and Towers

Let the Symphony last for eternity

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

A/N: …. The dice love the ladies. So gang if you even read this, toss me some suggestions on what to do about the bad endings! I'm hoping to reach the best ending, but it depends on how the dice roll. What do you think I should do for the alternate possibilities?

Ending Level: Worst Ending. (You're still on the bad route.)

They had spent a rather odd amount of time in the clock tower just sitting there. Loretta looked completely composed and patient, after informing Maria that she wasn't leaving the tower until her sister arrived. And why did the younger LeCarde insist that her sister was going to find them despite the castle's teleporting trick?

"There are only so many places that the castle can send a person, and Stella is quite a forceful personality. She won't sit still, so I know it to be better to just sit and wait for her arrival rather then wasting the energy to search for her."

It made sense when Maria looked at it from that perspective, and unlike herself, Loretta knew two of the other girls in the group. "Well, it doesn't seem like there's anything really to do..." she reasoned out loud before she made a seat for herself by the ice witch.

"If I may ask, how did you get dragged into the castle? Not just here, but as a hunter?" Loretta asked, her eyes focused straight ahead. The girl was so calm and collected that it was almost unnatural, too much like ice in stillness. Maria turned her head to observe her fellow hunter for a moment before looking away towards the wall before them.

"The Dark Priest was looking for two things, victims in his rituals to bring back Dracula and hostages to keep the Belmont Clan at bay. He murdered my parents and dragged me and a small group of women to this castle. It was the first time I met Annette, my family didn't let me socialize with the lower class," her voice turned soft and lost to the memories. "But at that time I was just orphaned and she took me in distracting me with stories of her lover, I never believed Dracula would return. I had heard stories of him of course, but I thought that the previous hunter had destroyed him. Shaft apparently sensed my abilities and was going to sacrifice me to Dracula."

Loretta turned her head to look at Maria as the blond was now looking higher up into the clock tower. The memories of those events clearly playing on the blond hunters' face, "Annette was held prisoner here in the clock tower. I wasn't taken any deeper into the castle but a few rooms so Shaft could work his dark magic quickly. I blacked out at his words, perhaps as an attempt at self preservation, but when I woke up it was with Richter looking down at me asking if I was alright," Maria voice warmed at the memory.

"I didn't want to be a victim, nor did I want someone else dictating what I could do. I had power to protect myself and the only family I had left, so I decided to fight. Not that Richter believed in a 'little girl'. My family is only distantly related to the Belmont Clan," Maria explained as she stood up, hugging herself slightly as she thought back on those days when she lost her parents. "But that blood sustains us, anyone who is either of holy or dark powers can survive here. The Castle would turn anyone else into something, it almost got Annette."

"Which would explain the story of Grant," Loretta acknowledged with a nod. "Charlotte is also of the blood, also distant."

Maria walked along the small space they had to move, even if the castle was being nice, it didn't remove all the spikes in the room. She didn't expect Loretta to speak much, the girl was just so unnaturally quiet, then again. Stella probably made up for that and they balanced each other out because of it.

"Our father was a vampire hunter, not by design or birth, rather because a vampire killed his first wife."

Maria turned her head in surprise, looking over and down at where the young woman still sat. Loretta didn't turn to face her, but she didn't stop her narrative. "Father was a friend of the Morris clan, another offshoot of the Belmont Clan, when his wife was murdered he joined the hunt. Then, years later, another vampire found a way to bring back the Castle and seal Dracula inside the Master Chambers. Then he murdered our father and turned my sister and I into vampires believing him to be our father instead."

Maria stared at the back of Loretta's head, her eyes filled with disbelief and sympathy. She walked over to Loretta, and resumed sitting so that all her focus was on the LeCarde sister.

"We had only just started to talk about our futures, as we are connected to the Morris clan. I would be lying if I were to say that we don't need our father despite being hunters ourselves. We fully intended our father meeting our prospective lovers, of being by our sides when we got married. Mother did not survive the war after all, father was all we had left. Now..."

"I'm sorry to hear that Loretta, I know your pain," Maria replied, placing her hand on Loretta's shoulder while her doves landed on her. Cooing their own brand of sympathy.

"No, I'm serious, I heard Jonathan's voice! He's here in the Castle!" Charlotte was hotly protesting before suddenly blustering into a, "no fair! Why do you get wings and you get to float all over the place?! I have to turn into an owl just to fly!"

"Good thing I don't gamble," Maria remark with a grin as she looked up to see Stella and Shanoa moving about in the upper level of the tower room. "Hey! We're down here!" she waved as the pair began their descent.

"Sister!" Loretta called out as well standing up and floating herself up to join her twin.

"You both are ok, that's great!" Charlotte called out before making a series of jumps to join the Maria.

"And you are all together," Loretta noted as she and her sister joined the group gathering on a rotating gear.

"Yes, we just have to be in physical contact with each other." Stella answered for the trio as Shanoa touched down, sending away her dark wings.

"However; we've discovered a vampire who has managed to turn a Belmont," Shanoa reported while the girls went round and around.

"What? That can't be!" Maria replied both shocked and horrified at the thought.

"It looks like it's Juste, but isn't he Richter Belmont's father? I can understand if it was Richter, we never have found out why he disappeared..." Charlotte began only to be interrupted by Maria.

"What? What do you mean he went missing?" Maria's voice carried her alarm as her doves took flight. "That's why I left home, you can't possibly be saying that he never returned!"

"No, there was a brief time when he 'did' go missing. But after his return he went into parts unknown. No one knows what happened to Richter Belmont five years after he defeated Dracula. However; before his departure he left the Vampire Killer in the hands of the Morris clan, with the LeCarde clan serving as support," Loretta explained patiently.

"This is the first time I've met other clans linked to the Belmont. The Order I served was created on the grounds of finding a way to defeat Dracula while the Belmont clan was in absence. We knew nothing of the Morris clan or the LeCarde clan. We did what we could, despite our founder being a traitor seeking to bring back Dracula," Shanoa added gaining the attention of the group.

"So, Richter defeated Dracula, disappeared for five years, then when he returned he just up and moved everyone?" Charlotte theorized out loud, "only there's never been stories of any other Belmont being made into a vampire. Mind controlled; yes, vampire no, so which leaves us with a question of..."

"'Of'?" Stella inquired hovering her way over to a stationary gear.

"Time flows like a river, each of us travels on that river like a little boat, so what happens if someone finds a way to take one of those boats and move them? Placing people on different parts of the same river can have serious consequences."

"Do you still have Sanctuary?" Stella asked quietly, watching Charlotte with a thoughtful gaze, the honey blond nodded so Stella relaxed. "So long as you have that, and we can find Juste, we can help him no matter how much the enemy may try to change things."

"Though when you think of it that way, this is getting quite scary inside the castle, people meeting who never should," Maria noted as she walked along. Her doves rose up in a flutter at the distant click of the door opening.

Below them was a new presence, the girls all leaning over the edge of the gears to see who the new comer was. A cowboy style hat hid the face, but not the blond hair that spilled out from around the back of it. There were straps that held small vials of liquid a plain looking spear resting in his hand, but it was when he looked up at the sound of the girls that got Stella's attention.

"Father!"

Before anyone could stop her, Stella glided herself away from the gear and made a rapid descent towards the bottom of the room. Loretta was on her heels as the rest of the girls joined, while the stranger at the bottom of the room looked up in wonderment. Maria couldn't help but feel a wave of sympathy as she followed, having learned a bit about the girls past.

"Father, don't you recognize us?" Stella reached for the stranger only to have Loretta grab her hands and pull her away. "Loretta! What are you doing? Father is here!"

"No, father is gone! Sister please," Loretta's normally stoic voice softened as she pulled her sister away from the man.

Charlotte was the next to land, with Maria and Shanoa right behind her, and the honey blond could see that this 'was' Eric LeCarde. But he looked, too, young to be the father of the twins, which could only have meant...

"I'll help Loretta, please speak to him for us," Maria instructed Charlotte as she moved past them to help Loretta with a now crying Stella.

"Ah, you're Eric LeCarde correct?" Charlotte asked, brushing a careless hand over one of the numerous blood stains on her clothes.

"Yes, and you would be?" Eric had been traveling through this castle for what felt like hours. As he traveled he could hear the faint wisps of conversation between others; yet he had never been able to find another living person. Just the undead who occasionally offered him food or drink and told him to not leave foot prints on the newly cleaned carpet. It had been unnerving to be sure, but he could only suspect that this was not Dracula's castle. Though to date he had yet to hear of a Dark Child with a pleasant home open to humans.

"Charlotte Aulin, I'm friends with Jonathan Morris, John Morris' son," she kept the friendly smile on her face, extending her hand for a hand shake. But she saw the visible start from Eric and knew that Jonathan had not been born yet. Nor the twins; meaning...

"John doesn't have a son, nor do I have any children."

Charlotte's expression softened as she nodded slightly, "yet. You don't have children 'yet'. Mr. LeCarde we need to fill you in on what's been going in this castle."


End file.
